It Just Happened
by Daisyfan5534
Summary: There are just somethings in life that are hard to explain why they happened, or even why we do them. The best thing to do is to just hope it plays out in your favor. If not, then try to figure out a way. Clementine and Luke learn that the hard way.
1. A kiss

**A/N: Just a cute story about these two adorable, zombie-slaying people. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game.**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5534

Chapter 1

* * *

"I'm fine, Luke."

"You haven't eaten anything in two days. I'm not letting you starve." Luke applied the brakes to the old, red pick-up truck before putting it in park.

It's been almost a year since they made it out alive. And in that time, the two have gotten closer together. It's been hard at times, but they made it through with each other. Just them.

It all pretty much started when they reached the lake that was covered in ice.

* * *

_"I go first. I can be front."_

_"No." Jane interrupts the Russian man. "Listen, I want to get to that house as fast as possible, but if the ice breaks… I'm saying we should test it."_

_"And how do you suppose we do that?" Kenny asks._

_"We send out our lightest member." Jane responds._

_"I was afraid you'd say that." Clementine spoke up._

_"Hell no! We are _not_ having her walk on ice!" Luke yelled._

_"Do you want to send the baby out?" Jane asks. "If the ice starts cracking under Clem's weight, then she can come back and we can walk around the lake. That side doesn't look like that far of a walk." Jane points the the left side of the lake._

_Clementine sighed. "Does it have to be me?"_

_"I know you don't want to do this, but I know you can do this. Just go slow, and turn back even on the slightest crack. Okay?" Jane assured her._

_Clem slowly started to walk on the ice. She didn't change her pace or panic over the fact that she's on top of water. She just walked._

'You're going to be fine, you're going to be fine! It's just a simple, slow walk.' _she thought to herself._

_This continued for a while, until she was a good distance away from her group and they started yelling at her, saying she was 'doing fine.' Clem thought she was actually going to make it to the other side, until-_

CRACK!

_Clementine froze where she was upon hearing the sound. She slowly tilted her head downward to confirm her fears. There was a crack right underneath her foot. She was terrified._

_"Clem! Did the ice crack?" Jane yelled at the child after noticing her stopping._

_Clementine was too afraid to turn her head, thinking the ice would break underneath her. She just slowly nodded, not losing eye-contact with the crack._

_"Then come back, we'll walk around!" Jane yelled._

_The eleven-year-old slowly pivoted on her toes to turn around. After calming herself down over the crack, Clem looked ahead to her group. They weren't that far away. Relaxing even more, she took one step towards them._

CRACK!

_The sound scared her. Clem looked down again to see another crack under her foot. Plus, it connected with the first one. Fear swept over her, realizing this one was bigger._

_She hesitated for a moment before taking a larger step._

CRACK!

_The rest of her group could hear the ice crack under her weight. Mainly because it wasn't just one crack, it grew. It connected to the first two, it surrounded her. Even with her longest stride, she'd still step on a crack. She was trapped._

_"Clem!" the girl looked at Luke. "We'll- we'll figure something out! Just don't move!"_

_Clementine looked back down at the cracked ice. She didn't know what to do. She was scared._

_"I- I have to move!" she yelled back._

_"Clem, forget what I said about walking! Get the fuck out of there!" Jane yelled._

_The kid took a deep breath before she started to run. After only a couple steps, the ice broke. Her legs were in the water. Clem started to pull herself out, but she felt something grab her ankle, trying to pull her into the water. She kicked and pulled to try to free herself, but a walker emerged from the water and started climbing on top of her._

_The weight of both of them was too much for the ice, and Clem knew it. It broke, sending them both fully underwater. The walker was on top of her, pushing her to the bottom of the lake. It was shallow in the part of the lake they were in, so the walker did actually push and pin Clem to the bottom. She did everything to try and push it off. In the corner of her eye, she saw the ice pick Jane gave her. With one hand keeping the walker away from her, she used the other to grab the weapon and jab it into the walker's head. Killing it._

_Clem was almost out of air. So she pulled the ice pick out and used her legs to push up from the lake floor and up to the hole. She was almost there, she just had to swim upward._

_Just when she was about to breathe in water, she felt something grab her jacket collar and pull her out of the lake. Clementine started coughing, pulling the air into her lungs._

_"Fuck, fuck, fuck, I shouldn't have sent you out!" Jane said as she pulled her completely out of the freezing water._

_Clem felt herself getting picked up by her savior, before they ran back to solid ground._

_"We have to get to the house, she's freezing!" Jane said before she and the rest of the group ran around the lake._

_After what felt like an eternity, they finally made it to the house. Jane set Clem down on a bench near the fireplace before she started looking for firewood and ordering the boys to get out of the house so Bonnie could get her wet clothes off._

_Jane found some wood and a blanket for the shivering girl. Bonnie wrapped Clem's bare body tightly in the blanket, while Jane used her nail file to light the fire. Clementine was still shaking from the cold by the time the guys came inside. Luke sat down right next to her and wrapped his arm around Clem, holding her close to him. Thinking that it would help warm her up._

_He also told her about what happened outside. Kenny blamed Arvo for her almost drowning and freezing to death. Arvo talked back to him, and Kenny started beating the shit out of him. Mike and Luke managed to get him off of Arvo before he killed him._

_Eventually Clem passed out from the cold. When she woke up, Jane gave her some food and her now, dry clothes. She used the blanket to shield her from the guys as she got dressed._

_Kenny came in, asking if she could help get a truck working. After failing, he sent her back inside, where she talked to Luke. He told her to be careful around Kenny and his temper._

_Kenny did eventually get the truck working, then he and the rest of the group got into an argument about where they should go. Clem did talk to Kenny alone in the truck after the fight ended, but she wasn't able to convince him of anything._

_Clem woke up early the next morning, hearing something outside. Upon inspection, she saw that Mike and Arvo were by the truck. Bonnie came around with their supplies and the baby before noticing her. They were leaving her, Jane, Luke, and the main reason- Kenny._

_Even though Clem threatened to shoot, Mike disarmed her. Next thing she knew, a bullet went through her shoulder. Arvo shot her. Clementine fell to the ground and quickly passed out from shock, not before hearing shouts, and more gun shots._

_When she came to, she was in the back seat of the truck. It was moving._

_"Clem, thank God you're okay." Luke said as he glanced back at her. He was driving the truck. "How do you feel?"_

_"It- it hurts." she responded holding her shoulder._

_"I bet it does. The bullet went straight through you. The pain should stop in a bit." Luke explained._

_"Luke, what happened?" Clementine asked._

_"Arvo shot you." he said._

_"I know, Luke, but why is it just us?" she asked._

_"After Arvo shot you, Kenny, Jane, and I woke up. Kenny was the first one out there, and Arvo quickly shot him. Jane then went out and tried to attack him. Arvo shot her twice. I went around the house to get behind him, but by then he already killed Bonnie, Mike, and… AJ. I attacked him from behind with my machete and killed him. I was so pissed, I thought he killed you, too." Luke explained. "After I saw that he shot you in the shoulder, I grabbed you and all of the supplies and left. We're on our way back to Howe's, I'm hoping to grab more supplies before we decide what to do. What do you think?" Luke looked back at Clementine who was curled up in a ball. He stopped the truck and put it in park before he got out. Luke opened the door to the back seat to join the little girl._

_He sat next to her with a hand rubbing her back, trying to comfort her. "It'll be okay, kid."_

_Luke heard a sniffle from Clem. Was she crying? She never cried. But with what happened, he couldn't blame her._

_Suddenly, Clementine wrapped her arms around Luke's neck, burying her face in his shoulder. Luke wrapped one arm around her waist while his other hand rested on the back of her head, keeping her close. He could feel Clem's tears on his shoulder as she cried. She was crying. Luke tightened his hold on her, as if it could make her feel better._

_"Shh… It's alright, Clem." he whispered in her ear. "You're safe, you're alive, you have me."_

_He could feel Clementine's hands grip his shirt. " Damn, I've never met anyone stronger than you, Clem." Luke told her._

_Clementine eventually calmed down and fell asleep in Luke's arms. Once she did, Luke gently picked her up and sat her down in the passenger's seat so it would be easier to can keep an eye on her while he drove._

_After Luke got back in the driver's seat, he put it in drive then stepped on the gas to continue their journey to Howe's._

* * *

Clementine scooped up some beans before eating them and giving the can to Luke. They were finishing off the can they opened yesterday. The two have living in the truck ever since Arvo's shoot out. Occasionally, they'd find a house to sleep in for the night and live there for a day or two, but they never got rid of the truck. It gave them lots of distance.

Luke drove while Clementine sat in the seat next to him. They would eat and sleep in the back seat, unless it was a nice night. They found a mattress in a garage at one of the houses they stayed at, a bit smaller than the entire bed of the truck. When the weather got warmer and it was a nice night, they would sleep in the truck bed on the mattress. It was nice to sleep under the stars every once in a while.

"Do you think we can sleep outside tonight?" Clem asked.

"Probably." Luke responded looking out the back window. "You still okay with going west?"

"Yeah." Clem said.

"I had a friend who went to Washington for college, he said that it's really nice there." Luke told her.

"Really?"

"Yep. Just a bit rainy."

"Have you ever been there?" Clementine asked as Luke handed her the can.

"No, I wanted to visit him, but I never found the time to." Luke said. "You can have the last of it."

Clem looked inside the can, there at least one scoop left. "You always give me the last, you have it."

"No, Clem. You need to eat." Luke said.

"I did, you can have it." she insisted holding the can out to him.

Luke sighed before reaching the can with one hand, while the other ran under Clem's hat and through her hair. "You're a sweet kid." The hand on her head slid down to her neck before Luke dug his fingers into it. Tickling her.

"Luke!" she giggled.

The farm boy set the can down before he started tickling her armpits. Clementine leaned back to try and get away from him, but that just gave Luke the advantage. Clem squirmed and laughed as he continued to tickle her. He had her pinned down.

Luke then use one hand to scoop up the last of the beans and shove them in her open mouth while she laughed. After doing so, he finally got off of her. Clementine sat up before she swallowed the food. Her intention was to get back at Luke.

Luke figured this out by the look on her face. He moved backwards until he was up against the door. "I know what you're thinking, Clem. Don't you dare."

It was too late. The girl lunged at Luke and started tickling him. He fought back by tickling Clementine again.

"Give in now, Clem. You know I'll win!" Luke said.

"No!" she squealed.

This continued for a while. Eventually, Clementine did give in. "You are so eating the last of the beans, next time." she huffed, recovering from the tickle fight.

"In your dreams, Clem." Luke responded, tilting her hat down.

"You can be a real jerk sometimes, Luke." Clementine said, fixing her hat.

"Admit it, you had fun. I know you did."

"Okay, I did."

"Good, I would have tickled ya again if you said no." Luke grabbed Clem's hands. "I don't want you to get any ideas."

Silence fell between them, faint smiles on their faces as they stared into each other's eyes. Clementine was straddling Luke's legs while his back was up against the truck door.

Luke grabbed Clem's hat and put it on his head. "What do you think?"

"I think you look like a dork." Clem responded.

"Well, I guess we're both dorks then." Luke said. "So, how about Washington?"

"Is that far?"

"Kinda, but we'll make it." he said with a smile at the end.

Clem always smiles back when Luke gives her one. It gives her hope.

Something suddenly came over her as she stared at Luke. Clem launched herself at him, letting her lips meet his. Luke was taken aback by this at first, then he closed his eyes and kissed her back. Clementine felt her arms wrap around Luke's neck, while his hands lightly cupped both her cheeks before they pulled each other closer into the kiss they kept sweet. The longer the kiss lasted, the deeper it got. The deeper it got, the more they forgot about the world around them.

They eventually broke it off, pulling away slowly as they opened their eyes. Light smiles came between them. Luke put Clementine's hat back on her head before he looked in her golden eyes while she looked in his brown ones. Then realization hit them as they went wide eyed. Clem pushed herself away from Luke and scooted back to the other side of the seat until her back was up against the car door.

They stared at each other in shock for a while, wanting to say something to make it less awkward between them. Nothing came to mind, mainly because they were still processing what they just did.

"So… Washington?" Luke managed to say.

"Ye- yeah…" Clementine responded.

Luke opened the door on his side and got out. He ran his fingers through his hair before getting into the driver's seat and starting up the truck. Luke looked to his right, expecting to see Clementine in the seat next to him, but she wasn't there. He looked in the side mirror to find her in the bed of the truck.

Luke rolled down his window and turned his body towards her as best he could. "Are you sure you wanna ride back there, Clem?"

"I'm sure." she didn't even look at him.

"Really? Because-"

"Just drive, Luke." she ordered. Her head rested on the edge of the truck bed with her bent arm hanging off the side.

Luke sighed before turning forward. He adjusted his side mirror so he could see Clementine better. It was weird not having her next to him. Luke put the truck in drive before he slowly applied gas, he didn't want to jerk the kid around.

He'd occasionally glance at Clem through the mirror while he drove. She almost looked like she fell asleep, if she wasn't shifting her body every ten minutes. Her cold shoulder made him uncomfortable. What else could he do about it though? Luke just drove, his lips still numb from what happened in the backseat.

* * *

**A/N: I really hope you enjoyed that, this was my first Walking Dead fic. Let me know if you want me to continue.**


	2. Prom

**A/N: Oh my god! Thank to those who favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! Those of you who've been asking how old Clementine is, you'll find out. This is story meant to be a brotp/otp so however you prefer, just go. Because these two are my brotp and otp.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game.**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5534

Chapter 2

* * *

_NOW ENTERING IOWA_

It's been a few hours since the incident in the backseat. Luke has been driving in silence with nothing but his thoughts to keep him occupied. He hated it. Clementine was still in the same spot in the truck bed by herself, he's still amazed that she's still there. The floor of the truck bed was stiff with ridges, and the mattress they have back there isn't big enough to cover the entire floor. Luke knows she didn't move the mattress so she could sit on it, otherwise she would be up higher.

Basically, Clementine should be uncomortable back there. Maybe that's why she keeps shifting around.

Luke just continued to drive past the state line while he went over the whole kissing scenario in his head, again. Clem made the first move, he knows that for a solid fact. She kissed him. That was a surprise to him. What was even more of a surprise, was that he kissed her back. Why did he kiss her back? Luke has kissed Clem on the forehead a few times before because it felt right to do so. He felt the same way when he kissed her back. It felt right.

Luke always came to this conclusion when he went over the whole thing. It shouldn't have felt right, she's almost twelve… At least he thinks she's almost twelve. She hasn't mentioned her birthday at all. He's been with her for almost a year and summer should be over in about a month or so. Either her birthday was in the fall, or she thinks that it doesn't matter and she's already twelve years old. Maybe he should ask her when her birthday is when he has the time.

"STOP THE TRUCK!"

Luke snapped out of his thoughts and did so. He put it in park before he got out to see Clementine jumping out of the truck and running back towards an abandoned car. Luke could see her blue and white hat resting by the car. The dirty thing must have blown off her head.

Clementine made it to the car and bent down to pick up her hat before she put it back on her head. Luke started making her way towards her, maybe he can convince her to ride in the passenger's seat now.

Clem started making her way back until she felt something grab her ankle and trip her. She looked at her foot, seeing a walker from under the car that grabbed her. Thankfully it was stuck under the car, so Clem had the advantage.

"Clem!" Luke yelled after watching the walker attack her. He pulled his machete out as he ran to her.

After failing to kick the rotten hand off of her, she pulled her gun out and shot it in the head. Luke finally got to her and helped her up before looking at the gun in her hand.

"Where'd you get the gun?" he asked. Clementine lost her gun in a fight with walkers on a bridge a couple months ago. One of the walkers fell on top of her and the gun flew out of her hand and over the bridge railing, into the water below. Luke did save her and told her that they'd find another one. Luke never found- thus, he never gave her- another gun.

"Found it." Clementine responded quickly.

Luke raised his eyebrow at her, trying to think where she got the gun. They both heard growling before watching more walkers emerge from the forest. Clem and Luke made a break for the truck. They were almost there when Luke tripped on a cinder block. Clementine noticed and went back for him.

"Clem, don't worry about me, just get to the truck!" Luke yelled at her.

She looked at the truck for a split second before she ran to Luke, helping him get to his feet. Once he was standing, he tried to walk but almost fell down again if Clementine didn't help him. Luke twisted his ankle.

"I told you to get to the truck." Luke said as Clementine put an arm around his waist.

"I'm not leaving you behind, Luke." she said while she helped him walk.

It took a while with Luke's ankle and Clem's height. The kid shot any walker that got close, she was a better shot than he could ever be.

They eventually made it to the truck, Luke climbed into the driver's side and pulled Clem in before shutting the door. Luke wrapped his arms around the girl as they both breathed deeply, letting the adrenaline die down.

"You okay, Clem?" he asked.

"Yeah." she responded.

"Are you bit?"

"No."

"Alright, just no more riding in the bed of the truck."

"Yeah... Okay."

"Oh, so you listen to me when it's about your hat?"

"You could have died, Luke."

"I know, thanks. I'm glad I sprained my left ankle, otherwise I would have needed to teach you how to drive."

Clementine looked up at him, he usually jokes about the bad things that happened. It makes her smile. Then she remembered what happened in the backseat. Luke realized she was thinking about that when her smile faded.

"Alright, scoot." he said before letting her go and lightly pushing her to the seat next to him. Clem crawled over the the passenger's side before Luke started up the truck and began driving toward the direction of the setting sun.

Clementine started humming a song after a while of silence. Luke knew the song, he's pretty sure that it's called '_Pretend.' _He was with Clem the first time they heard it.

"We have the song, you know." Luke said.

"We do?" Clementine asked surprisingly.

"Yeah, I grabbed the CD from the clothing store."

"Can we play it? Please?"

"Go ahead, kid."

"Great! It's been stuck in my head all day."

When the two had nothing to talk about they would play music with the CDs they found in the middle compartment in between their seats.

Clementine opened the compartment and pulled out the CD case. She began searching for the disk. With Luke's help she found it, and put it in the player and skipped each track until she found the song she was humming. Her and Luke listened to the song while a memory of how they found the CD played through their heads.

* * *

"_Alright, Clem. Go find something." Luke said._

_The duo were at a clothing store to get bigger clothes for Clementine. Ironically for Clementine, this was the same store she and Christa went to for new clothes._

_The jacket Bonnie gave her kept riding up her shirts, because it got too small. Since they had the truck and spring was about a month away, Clem got rid of it. Next thing she knew, her feet started hurting, and she had to keep tugging her shirts and pant legs down._

_Luke then decided that they were stopping at the next clothing store to get her a new outfit._

_"Do you know what size you are?" Without an answer, Luke pulled on the back of her shirts. "These both say small. Maybe find a medium or a large, okay?"_

_Clementine nodded before walking off to go explore. Luke caught her going into the changing room about ten minutes later. While she got changed, he decided to look around for anything they could use._

_An hour passed and Luke was getting worried. He hadn't heard anything from Clem. They did a brief search through the small building to look for walkers and came up clean, so she's not food. Luke decided to go into the hallway of the changing rooms to check on her._

"_Hey, Clem. Are you doing- Whoa…"_

_Clementine gasped as she turned around. There she was standing by the hallway mirror in what caught Luke off guard- a dress. It was long and purple with slim straps. Luke couldn't help but smile seeing her in a dress._

"_Luke, I'm- I'm sorry." Clem started as she walked towards him. Luke bent down to her height. "I- I just wanted to try it on for a minute, then one minute turned into five minutes, and…" she felt her head tilt down, a bit embarrassed that Luke caught her in a dress._

_Luke put a hand on her shoulder. "You look beautiful, Clem."_

_The little girl looked up at him. "Really?"_

"_Yeah, like you're ready for prom or something." he said with laugh at the end._

_Clementine smiled a little bit before it turned back to a frown. "Luke?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_What's prom?"_

_It came back to him, realizing that she was only eight when all of this started. "Well, Clem." Luke said as he stood back up. "Prom is this big dance for high school seniors. It was a really fancy thing, people would sometimes rent limos just to take them there. All the guys wore tuxedos and the women wore dresses and these flowers on their wrist called a corsage. It's pretty much called the best night of your life."_

"_Did you ever go to one?" Clementine asked._

"_Yeah, I did." Luke responded._

"_What was it like?"_

"_My prom?" Luke ran his fingers through his hair, doing his best to remember what happened that night. "Well, originally I wasn't planning to go. I actually was planning to tp our principal's house with Nick and a few other guys. But my mom's friend had a daughter and her boyfriend broke up with her right before prom, so my mom payed me twenty bucks to go to prom with her."_

"_That's nice of you, Luke."_

"_Yeah… It was good night. She was happy, that's all that mattered. When prom was over, we went to an after party at some guy's house. She got drunk and I had to take her home." Luke explained. "Damn, she was really drunk. It was hard for me to drive home because she wouldn't stop trying to make out with me. Luckily, she calmed down about halfway home and she wouldn't stop babbling about the stupidest things. After I dropped her off at her house, I went home and my mom grounded me the next morning and took the twenty bucks away for letting her get drunk."_

"_Was it the best night of your life?" Clementine asked._

"_Well, I had better nights, so I guess not." Luke said._

_A smile started to creep on his face as he stared at Clementine. She thought it was because he remembered his prom, but it lasted longer than it should have._

"_What?" she asked him._

"_Come on, kid." Luke bent down and hoisted Clem over his shoulder before he stood up and walked out of the changing rooms._

"_Luke, put me down!" she yelled at him._

"_Don't worry, I will." he said to her._

"_Luke." she exaggerated._

"_Ah, laugh a little, Clem." Luke said before tickling her bare feet. The eleven-year-old squealed and did her best to kick away his hand._

_Eventually, Luke did set her down. Clementine was mad about him tickling her, so she punched him in the arm. _

"_Hey, what was that for?" he asked._

"_You tickling me!" _

"_Well, how else was I supposed to get you to smile?" Luke asked, rubbing his hand on her hatless hair. He rarely ever saw her with her hat off, he likes to play with her curly hair._

"_You could have-" Luke slid the hand down from her head to cover her eyes._

"_Keep 'em closed for me, okay?"_

"_Luke, what are you doing?" Clementine moved his hand away._

"_Kid, don't make me blindfold ya." Luke said before grabbing her hands and lifting them over her eyes. "Just cover your eyes, until I say you can open them."_

_Clementine did as told. She was still curious about what Luke had in mind. She heard him grunt a little and a little bit of rattling. Clem moved her fingers a bit to see him messing with the back a swivel chair. Luke caught her peeking and she quickly covered them back up._

_After a little while longer, Luke pulled her hands away from her eyes. "It's not a corsage, but it's the closest thing I could find." Luke said before pulling out a hairband with a white flower on it and sliding it on her wrist._

"_What are you doing, Luke?" Clementine asked._

_The farm boy walked to a stereo and messed with it. "You'd be surprise on what still works now a days." Luke got it to play a slow song before walking back to the little girl. He took her hand and pulled her to the swivel chair he was messing with earlier. Luke took the back off of it._

"_Luke?" Clementine asked._

"_Yeah?" Luke said._

"_What is this?"_

"_Well, since you never got to have a prom," Luke said before lifting Clementine up and setting her down on the chair. "I thought I might give you one." he said before using his foot to lower the height of the chair so Clem would be slightly shorter than him._

_The eleven-year-old smiled at Luke. He took her hands and put them around his neck before Luke wrapped his arms around her waist then they both started swaying from side to side._

"_So, this is what it's like?" Clem asked._

"_A little bit. There's a lot of dancing, they're not all slow, sometimes they're fast." Luke explained._

_After a while of swaying, Luke took her hand and spun her around. He held on to her hand as they started swaying again. The two looked into each other's eyes while they danced._

"_You know, Clem." Luke said to break the sweet silence between them. "Your eyes could kill a man."_

_Clementine giggled as she tilted her head down._

"_I'd also kill to see that smile on your face everyday." Luke added._

"_Mike was right, you are a casanova." Clem said, lifting her head back up._

"_You don't even know what that word means." Luke said before spinning her around again. "But I meant what I said."_

_Clem tilted her head down again, trying to hide her blush._

"_Hey, come on. I like looking at your eyes." Luke said._

"_I don't want to kill you, Luke." Clementine responded._

"_Nah, you won't kill me." he said. "Maybe a little stun."_

"_You're ridiculous." she responded as looked back up at him._

"_Sorry, what was that? I was distracted by something." he said._

"_You're joking." she told him._

"_See, I told you. It was just a little stun." Luke said._

_Clementine rolled her eyes at him. "Why did you do this?"_

"_Do what?"_

"_Why did you give me a prom?"_

"_Well, other than giving me twenty bucks, my mom said something that also convinced me." Luke spun her around again. "'Every girl deserves to feel beautiful at least one time in their life. Prom is the best way to do that.' And after all the shit you've been through, Clem. You deserve it more than anyone."_

"_You think so?" she asked._

"_I know so, kid." he said._

_The two continued to dance until the song was over, then Luke helped Clementine off the chair and told her to go change. Watching her walk away with that cute, little smile on her face made him feel happy._

_Once Clementine walked into the changing rooms, she felt someone grab her arm. Who ever it was, pinned her up against the wall and cover her mouth with his hand._

"_Shh… I don't want to hurt you, just don't scream." he whispered._

_The guy was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up. In this light, all Clem could see was his mouth. His hand over her mouth slowly moved down to her side._

"_Well, aren't you just a pretty, little thing?" he said before his hand started rubbing up and down her side._

_Clementine turned her head away from him, closing her eyes and biting down hard on her lip to keep herself from calling out for Luke. Then she heard some scuffling outside the little hallway they were in. Was Luke in trouble?_

_The guy's hand slid further down her body, down her leg. Right when his hand went under her dress and grazed her ankle, she kicked him in the crotch before trying to run away from him._

"_LUKE!" _

_The man caught her and pinned her arms down with one of his, while the other harshly covered her mouth again. "I told you not to fucking scream!"_

_Clementine bit his hand, causing him to loosen his grip on her. "LUKE! HELP!"_

"_You little bitch!" The guy spun her around and smacked her across the face, knocking her to the floor. _

_He got on top of her, holding her wrists with one hand while the other repeatedly slapped her small face. Each one sounded crisp, and it hurt._

"_GET THE FUCK OFF OF HER!"_

_Clementine felt the guy get yanked off her tiny body, allowing her to curl up into a little ball on the floor and hold her stinging cheek. She kept her eyes closed, while the fight- what she assumed was happening- occurred. All she heard was some grunting and glass breaking, Clem was scared to even open her eyes at the slightest bit._

_Eventually, the scuffling noises stopped and she heard footsteps make her way towards her, stopping right in front of her in her little position._

"_You okay, kid?"_

_Clementine opened her eyes and looked up at the person who spoke. It was Luke. He bent down to more her level before she hugged the shit out of him, Luke was more than happy to hold the kid._

"_Hey, let me look at ya." he said, pulling her head back so he could look at her face. "Jesus, Clem." her left cheek was already starting to bruise. It was pretty bad, too._

"_You look bad, too." she told him, her voice laced with a tiny quiver._

"_Well, I got beat up by three guys. Two got the jump on me out there, and then there's him." he said. "Did he touch you?"_

"_He- he rubbed my side and my leg."_

"_Is that all?"_

_Clem nodded. Luke was relieved that the creep didn't violate her beyond that. He pulled her back in for a hug, wishing he went with her instead of letting her go alone._

_After comforting the little girl, Luke told her to go change into her new clothes, while he guarded the her room in case the three assholes woke up. _

_Right after the little prom they had, he watched Clem leave to go back to the changing rooms. Luke decided to take the CD that they listened to. After he did, the two guys attacked him. Luke fought back best he could, considering he was outnumbered. It wasn't until he heard Clem's screams, when he finally managed to knock the two out and rush to the kid. Once he saw the hooded man continually slap the shit out of her, Luke was on him two seconds, flat. What he did to the two out there was nothing compared to what he did to the guy who hurt Clem. Luke almost killed him by throwing him at a mirror, but it was enough to knock the creep out so he could check on the little girl_

_The changing room door unlocked and Clementine opened it, hat and all. Since this was the same store she and Crista went to for new clothes, she found the same purple shirts, jeans, and shoes the next size up. When Luke saw her, he was confused that her clothes looked the same, until Clementine explained how she found these clothes._

_Luke sunk down to her level. "You sure you're okay, kid?"_

"_I'm fine, Luke." Clem said._

"_Look, I'm sorry, I didn't get here sooner and letting you go alone, in general." Luke apologized._

"_You shouldn't be apologizing, it's not your fault. Besides, I'm glad to have you with me." Clem told him._

"_Thanks, Clem. I'm glad to have you, too."_

_The guy who attacked Clementine stirred a bit. Luke notices him moving before taking Clem's hand and walking out of the store together. He asked her if they had any painkillers because he was kind of hurt after his fight with three guys. Once they got to the truck, Clem dug through their supplies in the backseat while Luke put the CD he took, in the compartment between the two front seats. He's surprised that it was still intact after all that's happened_

_Clementine found some and gave the pill bottle to Luke. He gladly took it from her and swallowed a couple painkillers. Right after doing so, Luke felt something peck his cheek. He looked over to Clem who just slipped into the passenger's seat from the back._

"_What was that for?" he asked._

_Clementine did a side smile on the right side of her face, since the left was sore from being slapped. "A thank you."_

"_You know I'd do anything to protect you, Clem."_

"_I meant prom."_

"_Oh, well I'm glad to have given you one."_

_With that said, Luke started driving away from the clothing store. After a while, he noticed that Clementine passed out in her seat and something in her hand. He pried it out of her hold to see what it was. It was a hairband with a flower on it, her "corsage."_

_Luke pulled the hairband over the rear-view mirror and let the accessory hang from it. So the memory of her prom would last with them._

* * *

"Are the restrooms clear?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, they're empty." Clementine responded.

The two stopped at a rest area in Iowa, they had to make sure that it was clear of any people and walkers before they could stay the night here. The sun just went down, darkness starting to fill up the clear sky. Meaning that they could sleep in the truck bed tonight.

Because of Luke's ankle, Clementine had to go inspect the bathrooms alone before coming back to help him get to the back of the truck so he could climb in.

Once they both got on the mattress in the truck bed, Clementine rolled up Luke's pant leg to look at his ankle. It was pretty swollen.

"Holy shit..." She muttered.

"It's not that bad, Clem. I'll just let it rest, and it should be better in the morning."

"And if it's not?"

"Well, like I said, it's my left ankle. I drive with my right.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, I just can't put any weight on it." Luke said as he pulled out a blanket from under the mattress and Clem rolled his pant leg down before crawling over to him. "So, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What is it?" she asked.

"When's your birthday? I mean it's almost been a year, and you haven't mentioned it." he said.

"It's in the fall. Like the beginning of October."

"Okay, I'm just making sure we didn't miss it."

"Why?"

"It's your birthday, Clem. You shouldn't act like it's not a big deal. Besides, you know when mine is."

"Well, it's not as big a deal as it was before the dead started walking around."

"You at least deserve someone saying happy birthday to you."

"At least you had alcohol."

"Well, maybe I'll find you some expired apple juice. How does that sound?"

"Man, apple juice sounds good right now."

"I'll take that as a yes then."

Luke unfolded the blanket and threw it over him and Clementine. The two laid back and watched dark fill the sky and the stars and moon start to poke out.

"Clem... About what happened in the backseat..." he started.

Clementine rolled over, facing away from Luke. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Well, you're going to have to listen to me talk about it, then." he said. "I don't want that kiss to make things weird between us, because I hated riding in the truck alone. I know you might have some mixed feelings about it, but I shouldn't have kissed you back, Clem." Luke stayed silent for a moment. "I love you, Clem. I do, but not in that way. Look, maybe when you're older we can try it out, but you're just too young."

"I know, Luke."

"What?"

"I know I shouldn't have kissed you."

Luke sat up to look at her. "Then why did you?"

Clementine lifted the blanket over her head and curled up tighter.

"Clem?" he said.

"What?" she asked.

"Why did you kiss me?" he asked her again. "You can ignore me forever, Clem." he said after hearing nothing.

Luke tried to pull the blanket off the kid, but she kept her tight hold on it. She really didn't want to talk, but Luke was going to get her to talk one way or another.

He managed to rip the blanket off her. Once he did, Luke turned her over as he got on top of her. He lightly pinned her wrists down so she couldn't move.

"This is the last time I'm going to ask you, Clem. Why'd you kiss me?" he asked again.

"I don't know, okay!" she yelled at him. "I… I don't know why I kissed you."

Luke got off of her, letting Clem sit up.

"You could have just said that." Luke said.

"No, I couldn't. You'd say that wasn't an answer and that I'd have to explain." Clementine said.

"What would you have to explain?" he asked.

"That I didn't mean to kiss you, I just did and I can't find a reason why." she said.

"That's the same reason I kissed you back, Clem." Luke told her.

"What?"

"That's right, Clem. I didn't mean to kiss you back."

"So what does this mean?"

"It means that nothing changed between us. You could say that you're done with your first kiss."

"So it's not awkward between us anymore?"

"Nope."

Clementine smiled before she wrapped her arms around Luke's neck. "Good, I hated it."

"You and me both, kid." Luke said before hugging her back.

Luke moved into a laying down position with Clementine on his chest before he pulled a blanket over both of them.

"Luke?" Clementine said.

"Yeah?" he responded tiredly.

"I love you, too." she told him.

"Thanks, Clem." he said.

Luke started rubbing her small back while she rested on his chest. Clementine snuggled closer to his warm body as her eyes slowly started to close. Right when she was about to fall asleep, Clem could feel her hat taken off her head before she felt lips being pressed against it, causing her to smile.

"Good night, kid." Luke whispered to her.

"Night, Luke." she quietly muttered before she fell asleep.

Soon after she did, the hand that Luke was rubbing her back with moved up to the hair on her head and ran his fingers through the curly mop. It was getting long, she would have to cut it soon. He knew she had to do for survival, but he didn't want her to. Playing with it often relaxes him.

Luke felt his eyes getting heavy. He took one last look at the stars above him and Clementine then he let himself succumb to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: You have no idea how much writer's block I had writing this, but I think this was super cute! Please review and tell me what you think :) Okay, bye!**


	3. Mountains and Melissa

**A/N: Third Chapter, I think you're going to die of cuteness. I almost did.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5534

Chapter 3

* * *

_NOW ENTERING SOUTH DAKOTA._

"Do I have to do this Luke?" Clementine asked.

"Yep." Luke responded.

"Why? I'm pretty sure school doesn't exist anymore."

"You never know when you might need it."

Clementine groaned from the backseat. It's been a week since the whole kissing incident. Luke found a math and a writing booklet and some pencils in the last town they stopped at. He gave them to Clementine and insisted she filled them out.

"I understand writing, but math?" she said.

"You got one book down, you can finish the other." he told her.

"I hate math, and when is it ever going to be useful?"

"If I had to do it, Clem. Then you're going to. Be glad I didn't find you a reading one. You know, maybe I should find you one."

"Luke…" she exaggerated.

"Come on, kid. Just do it and you'll be done."

Clementine huffed in defeat before she layed down on her stomach in the backseat and opened the math booklet in front of her. She took the pencil in hand and started writing in it. They were fairly easy, she had to skip some of them because she didn't remember the answer or they were story problems. Maybe Luke should find her a reading book, she could barely read. First grade was almost over when all of this started for her.

"Luke, what's seven plus five?" she asked him. "It's eleven, right?"

"Nope." he responded.

"What is it, then?"

"Figure it out, Clem."

Clementine knew how to count to ten, but she could partly remember how to count to twenty. She remembers showing her mom how she could count to _thirty_ before they left for Savannah, but it's been a long time since she actually counted. During the first grade, she did a little bit of adding and subtracting, but it never went above ten.

Clem made herself a number line at the top of the page to help her remember a little bit and to help her, but she didn't even know if she could trust herself with that.

'_Okay, start at seven then go five up. One, three, four, five… Still, eleven? One, three, four, five. Eleven. This is so stupid!'_

"Figure it out yet, kid?" Luke asked.

"No." Clementine said.

"How high can you count?" he asked.

"Thirty… I think…" she trailed off.

"Show me."

"One, three, four, five-"

"Clem." Luke interrupted.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"You forgot the number two."

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, you did."

"No."

"Clem, you said, '_one, three, four, five.'_ You forgot two."

"I did n-"

Clementine cut herself off before turning back to her number line.

'_I didn't forget two, did I? Start at seven and go up. One, TWO, three, four, five… Twelve…'_

"It's twelve, isn't it?" she asked Luke.

"Yep." he said. "You didn't forget two for every problem you did, did you."

Clementine paused for a moment. "I don't know."

"Okay… I think that's enough math for one day."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I need to teach you how to count first."

"Now?"

"Not now, but later."

Clementine smiled before crawling into the passenger's seat.

"So, have you ever been to Mount Rushmore?" Luke asked.

"What's that?" Clem responded.

"Well, it's a mountain with the faces of former United States presidents."

"That's not real."

"Yes it is."

"A mountain with faces on them? No way."

"Well, I guess I have to prove it to you, then?"

"So we're going to this _supposed_ Mount Rushmore?"

"That's the plan. I've always wanted to go, so might as well take you with me."

"Well, I don't have a choice."

"You do make a point."

Silence filled the truck. Clementine looked up at the cloudy sky, wondering if she and Luke would be able to sleep in the truck bed tonight. She liked sleeping in the bed, the backseat was cramped. Clementine could lay down in the back and she'd be about the same size. Luke would let her sleep on his chest. As for Luke, he has to sleep leaning up against the truck door which is uncomfortable. Clem tried it once and regretted it.

"Luke?" Clem spoke. "How long will it be before we reach Washington?"

Luke thought about it for a moment. "Well, my guess is about a week or two, most likely the beginning of fall."

"What do you think is in Washington?"

"I don't know, but I've heard they have good apples."

"Apples?"

"Yep, I also know that the biggest city there is called Seattle."

Clementine paused for a moment. "Luke?"

"Yeah, kid?" he said.

"What if there's nothing there, or it's over run by walkers?"

"Well, if that happens we can go back Mount Rushmore."

"Enough with the mountain."

"It's real, Clem."

"No, it's not."

Luke laughed a little on her stubborn act. Usually talking with Clementine was like talking to another adult, but occasionally Luke would have conversations with her that showed her child side. He tried to have as much fun with this side of her as he could, because it didn't come around often.

"Believe what you want to believe, Clem. But we're going there." he told her.

"You're so weird." she sighed before opening the middle compartment between them, grabbing the CD case.

"What are you looking for?" Luke asked.

"I don't know, anything than hearing you talk about a mountain that doesn't exist." Clementine responded, flipping through the CD's.

After a while, Clem found a name that stood out to her, but she didn't know how to say it. "Luke, what does N-I-R-V-A-N-A spell?

"Nirvana, man they were the best. How many Nirvana CD's are in there?"

"Uh… Three."

"Did you forget the number two?"

"No, Luke, I didn't!"

"Great, we have all three. Go ahead, play one. You'll love 'em."

Clementine inserted one of the three CDs and waited for sound to come out. When the music played, the kid sat back in her seat. Not a word spoken between her and Luke, Clem just wanted to listen to the music.

While listening to Nirvana, Clementine started to wonder why she forgot the number two. How the hell could she forget the number two? It's just been her and Luke since winter. Two. Why did she forget it?

Luke had a faint smile on his face. Amazed that Clem forgot the number two. And the way she argued, brought out her child side. Man, she was adorable.

Both of their minds then started to wander to the time when there was another person in their group. Three. Then it became the reason why it's just been the two of them.

* * *

_They were running out of gas, and it was getting dark. Clementine and Luke were on their way to a city to try and get some more. They both knew the consequences of running out of gas, they would have to go on a wild goose chase to find some, or ditch the truck._

"_We made it to the city, Clem." Luke said. "Clem?" Luke looked over to her seat to find her curled up in it, facing him. She was completely passed out._

_For winter being over in a couple of weeks, it was really freezing last night. They couldn't turn the truck on, because it wasted power, and could attract unwanted things. The kid didn't have her jacket anymore, so she stayed up most of the night, because she was cold. He stayed up with her, trying to share his body heat with her. Hoping it would warm her up. Clem eventually shivered herself to sleep, but she was really tired in the morning. Luke then promised her that he'd find her a blanket._

_After driving for a while, Luke drove into a neighborhood. It was too dark to try and get more gas, but he did make out a house with a garage. He pulled into the driveway before getting out and opening the garage door. Luke got back into the truck and pulled it in._

_Once he was inside, he closed the garage door before he opened the door to the passenger's seat._

"_Come on, kid." he muttered as he picked her up in his arms and carried her inside the house._

_The house sort of reminded him of the cabin he and his group were at. The living room was a bit bigger than the one at the cabin, but it had stairs in the same place that lead up to the second floor, which almost looked the same. At the top of the stairs to the right, there was a door, if you kept going straight there was another door at the end of the hall. Turning left from that door lead to another door a few feet away from it. Wooden railing went around the second floor ledge so no one would fall down from it._

_Luke could see a few other doors on the first floor and he wanted to scope out the place to make sure it was safe here. He set Clementine down on the couch to let her sleep, he didn't want to put her in danger if he found a lurker and it attacked them both. He did find a folded blanket on the couch she was resting on, so Luke covered her with that. Keeping his promise to her._

_He pulled out his machete before making his way to the second floor. The first door he checked showed a master bedroom. The bed looked like a mess, Luke couldn't tell if anyone has been sleeping in it. The next room he checked turned out to be a bathroom. The last room was another bedroom, but this one had a bunk bed. The room was messier than the first one, mainly because of the blood splatters everywhere. He didn't want to know that happened here. _

_With the upstairs cleared, Luke went back downstairs to check the rooms there. Before doing so, he checked on Clementine who was still sleeping soundly on the couch. For a tough kid, she actually looked adorable._

_He put his machete away for a minute so he could get a closer look at her. Luke tucked the blanket under her small body, making sure she was warm. After doing so, he knelt down in front of her, gently rubbing her arm so he didn't wake her up. Just looking at her made him tired._

_Luke nudged her hat up so he could plant a kiss on her forehead. He loved her. Platonically, of course. He's never had such a strong bond with someone before. Nick quickly became second once Luke started hanging around Clementine. He adored her. Luke could see her grow up to be a strong, beautiful woman._

_Suddenly a noise interrupted his thoughts about the kid. It sounded like a door. Luke looked towards the source then back at Clementine. He didn't want to leave her, but he had to._

_He stood up, pulling out his machete again before proceeding to the room where the noise came from. Luke pushed the door open to find a kitchen and to hear a gasp. It was a female._

_She was tall, most likely in her early twenties. She had black hair and green eyes, trying their best to look into his soul. The only one who actually was able to that to him was Clementine with her golden eyes. Being around her twenty-four-seven, had hardened his soul, but he still finds himself surrendering to the kid from time to time._

"_This… Your house?" he asked the woman._

"_Yeah, it is. Been here for about two months." she responded._

"_Is it just you?" _

"_Yep, you never know who you can trust."_

"_I believe you."_

"_You don't look like a rapist." she said after silence._

"_I'm not." Luke told her as he put his weapon back in his holder._

"_Good. I'm Melissa."_

"_I'm Luke."_

"_So… Luke. Are you on your own, too?" Melissa asked._

"_No, actually. There's someone else with me." Luke said._

"_Well, where is he?" she asked._

"_He's a she, and she's asleep on the couch." he explained. "I hope you don't mind. I mean, she's exhausted and she stayed up really late last night freezing her ass off."_

"_Not at all, as long as your girlfriend isn't crazy."_

"_What? Oh, no she's not my girlfriend."_

"_Who's not your girlfriend?" Clementine walked through the kitchen door, rubbing her sleepy eyes._

"_Hey, kid. You're up." Luke said to her._

"_Yeah, and where are we?" Clementine looked at Melissa. "And who's she?"_

"_Clementine this is Melissa. This is her house. Melissa, Clementine."_

"_Hey." Melissa said._

"_Hi." Clem responded before looking up at Luke. "Luke, who's not your girlfriend?"_

_Luke chuckled at the question. "Just forget it, Clem."_

"_So… Are we staying here tonight?" Clem asked._

"_Well, that depends." Luke looked at Melissa._

"_Yes, you can." Melissa said._

"_Thank you." Luke responded._

"_Oh, no problem. There's actually a kids bedroom upstairs. It's a bit bloody in there, but the bed should be sleepable."_

"_Cool." Clementine said._

"_Come on, kid. We better get you to bed."_

"_But," Clementine yawned. "I'm not even tired."_

"_Yeah, yeah." Luke bent down to hoist her up on his shoulder before he walked out of the kitchen. Melissa not that far behind him._

_After Luke walked upstairs and into the kids bedroom, he set Clem down so she could crawl into the lower bed. Luke tucked her in before walking out of the room and shutting the door._

"_Cute kid." Melissa said._

"_Yeah, thanks." Luke responded._

"_You like her brother, or something?"_

"_No, we're not related in any way, but we've been together since the beginning of winter."_

"_So how'd you two end up here?"_

"_Well, believe it or not, we have a truck. We're almost out of gas so we decided to stop here for the night and get some when it's light out."_

"_Smart idea. So, how old is she?"_

"_Clem's eleven."_

"_And you?"_

"_Twenty-seven. So, how about you?"_

"_I'm twenty-three."_

"_So you've been on your own this whole time?"_

"_It was me and my boyfriend, but he got bit. I think he didn't know about it, because when I found him the next morning, he was one of those things."_

"_Wow, I'm sorry."_

"_Yeah…"_

"_I was with a group before, that's when I met the kid. We did get bigger, but then walkers and assholes happened. It's just us now."_

"_It's not fair that good people end up with their face eaten off."_

"_I'm with you, there."_

_Silence filled the space between the two. It wasn't until Luke yawned when he broke it. "I best be hittin' the hay." he said before walking towards the stairs._

"_Where are you going?" Melissa said._

"_I'm sure that other bed is yours, I'm sleeping on the couch." Luke said._

"_Oh, no. That thing is hella uncomfortable." Melissa told him._

"_I've been sleeping in the backseat of a truck, that couch looks like heaven." Luke insisted._

"_Sleep with me. My bed is big enough for the both of us."_

"_No, I'm fine with the couch."_

"_Come on. I don't bite."_

_Melissa looked at him doing her best puppy dog eyes. Clementine pulls them on Luke all the time and he's become almost immune to them, so Melissa's practically had no affect on him. But Luke figured that she wouldn't take no for an answer, so he agreed._

_The next morning, Luke was able to get some gas from a car across the street. After fueling the truck up, he went back inside to look for Clementine. He found her in the kitchen with Melissa playing with a deck of cards._

"_Hey, what's going on here?" he asked._

"_Clementine here is amazing at bluffing." Melissa said._

"_We're playing poker." Clem said._

"_Let me get this straight. In the half hour I was gone, you learned how to play poker." Luke summed up. _

"_Yep, kid's a quick learner, too." Melissa said. _

"_Come on, Luke. Play with us, please?" Clem begged._

"_Alright, but don't start whining when you lose." Luke joined the girls in their card game. Maybe they didn't have to leave quite yet._

* * *

_Winter was over and spring started to come. It's been Clementine, Luke, and Melissa for about two weeks. Things started to change then._

_Clementine woke up gasping for air, she just woke up from a nightmare. When she and Luke slept in the truck and Clem had a nightmare that caused her to wake up in the middle of the night, she'd sometimes accidently wake up Luke because she jolts away from him. Luke would just pull the little girl back in his arms and hold her, asking her about what happened. Sometimes she'd talk to him, other times she hugs him tighter. That just tells him that she didn't want to talk about it. He'd stay up with her until she fell back asleep. If Clem didn't wake him up by accident, then she'd cuddle closer to Luke. Causing his arms to tighten around her, making her feel safer._

_But this time they weren't in the back of their truck. They were in a house and in different rooms. Usually Clementine wouldn't talk to Luke about dreams like this, but this time she was going to. He should know. So the kid pulled the covers off and got up._

_She opened her bedroom door and walked out and around a corner to Luke and Melissa's room. Clem quietly opened the door and poked her head through to find their bed empty. _

_Clementine thought about going back to bed, but her dream really scared her. She walked downstairs to make her way through the living room and to the kitchen. Clem could hear something in the kitchen so she figured that Luke and Melissa were rationing their supplies._

_She pushed the door open a crack and opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped once she saw what she least expected. Luke and Melissa were making out right there, not even noticing that Clementine is witnessing it. The kid's mouth just hung open at the sight._

_After about a minute or so, Clem finally was able to shut her mouth and slowly close the door. Maybe she didn't need to talk to Luke. Clem knew that Melissa liked Luke and vise-versa, but she didn't think that it would evolve that fast._

_Clementine started making her way back upstairs, rubbing her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She was kind of thirsty. A drink of water wouldn't hurt, then she realized that the water was in the kitchen where a make out session was taking place. Damn, she was thirsty._

_Clem started to pace around the living room deciding what to do. Go back to bed with a head full of bad dreams, or interrupting Luke and Melissa for water. Her pace started to turn into a dreading walk, rubbing her eyes every now and then. One of her steps actually made a creak echo throughout the house. This caused her to stop pacing and face the kitchen door as it opened._

"_Hey, Clem. What are you doing up?" Luke asked as he walked into the living room._

"_I-" the kid rubbed her eyes again. "I had a bad dream, and I wanted to get some water before going back to bed."_

"_You wanna talk about it?" Luke asked._

_Clementine nodded._

"_Alright, but let's get you some water first." Luke said before taking her hand and walking to the kitchen. "Don't worry, it's just Clem." he told Melissa._

_After Clem clenched her thirst, she and Luke started to head back upstairs and into her room. Clementine sat on the bed pulling her legs in and wrapping her arms around them. Luke knelt down on the floor in front of her._

"_So your dream…" Luke said._

"_I was sleeping, then I felt something grab my ankle and pull me out and under the bed. It was like a hole under there. A deep, dark hole. I was scared. I looked down to see what was pulling me and I saw nothing. What ever it was let me go, and I just kept falling. Eventually someone caught me with one arm and he used his other to put a barrel of a gun to my head. He had my arms pinned down, I couldn't move. He started walking, and then he spoke." Clementine's voice started to quiver._

"_Clem, you can stop. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Luke said. _

"I told you I knew who you were, Clementine." _she quoted._

_Luke went wide eyed at what she said. When they were escaping Howe's he could hear something like that on his way out to let Kenny kill the one who said it._

"_It was him. It was Carver." she said. "We walked to this chair that was only visible by one white light, hanging from the darkness. He sat me down in it, pulling my arms behind the chair. I felt cold metal around my wrists, keeping them together. Carver walked around the chair to me, his face was beaten in this time."_

'This time?' _Luke thought._

"_He slowly shoved the barrel of his gun under my chin, forcing my head up. I didn't want to look at him, so I just closed my eyes. But I could feel him press his bloody forehead against mine."_

"_Clem…"_

"_He whispered _"Don't worry, honey. I'll make sure you enjoy this." _Then he lifted the gun above my head and flipped it around before he hit me with the butt of it… That's when I woke up." Clementine sniffed a few seconds after her story was done._

_Luke looked at her in shock. "Clem, what did you mean by '_this time'_?"_

"_Those times when I didn't talk to you about my nightmares, he was in them. Sometimes his face was caved in and bloody, other times it wasn't. He- he told me not to tell you." her eyes started tearing up. Clementine wiped her watering eyes before pulling her head down into her little ball._

_Luke pushed himself up from the floor to sit next to Clementine on the bed. He pulled the kid's small body onto his lap before rocking her back and forth. Luke took her hat off her head, causing Clem to lift up her head and press herself against him while she cried. Luke ran his fingers through her curly hair, the only way that calms her down._

"_Shh… It's okay, Clem." Luke placed a kiss on her temple. "He's dead, he can't hurt you. And even if he wasn't, I would never let him touch you or even fucking come near you." Luke couldn't believe that Carver was still tormenting the poor kid in her sleep. After all this time, she finally worked up the courage to tell him. Who knows how he threatened her? Who knows what he said or even what he did to her?_

_Clementine eventually calmed down and looked up at Luke. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was just scared."_

"_You don't need to apologize, Clem. You had every right to be scared." he said._

_Clementine wrapped her arms around Luke's torso, causing him to hold the kid tighter. Clementine can still hear Carver's voice clear as day, haunting her._

"_Luke?"_

"_Yeah, Clem?"_

"_I- I don't want to sleep alone. Can you sleep with me tonight?"_

"_Sure, kid."_

_Luke pulled the covers back and pulled himself and Clementine in them. Since the bed was small, Clem moved as close to the wall as she could to give Luke some room. _

"_You going to be okay?" he asked her._

"_Yeah." she said._

"_You'd tell me if he was in your dreams from now on, right?"_

_Clem thought about it for a moment. Carver said he'd hurt her unlike anything she could ever imagine if she told Luke. He never went into any detail on what he'd do to her, but that didn't stop her from living in fear. In her dreams she'd always wake up before he could actually hurt her… physically, at least. He'd taunt her, threaten her, restrain her, call her 'honey.' That's what always bugged her throughout the day, that stupid name echoing in her ears. But if he wanted to hurt her, he would have done it already. That's why she decided to tell Luke. He's right, Carver can't hurt her, he was dead._

"_Clem?"_

"_You're right, he can't hurt me."_

_"So, you're going to tell me when he gives you nightmares."_

"_Yeah."_

"_Good, I don't want you to torture yourself over him." Luke gently caressed Clem's cheek, causing her to smile. "Because, you're too sweet to deserve that."_

"_Sweet?"_

"_You know what I mean, kid. Still, you don't deserve him coming into your dreams and do who knows what to you." Luke's hand rested against her cheek. Clementine held it there with her hand, his touch made her feel warm._

_Clem yawned before wrapping her other arm around his before she continued to press his hand to her cheek and pull his arm closer, which caused Luke to smirk. "You feel like letting me go?"_

"_No." she said as she closed her eyes._

_Luke placed a quick kiss on her forehead before he rubbed her cheek with his thumb, causing her to tighten her grip on his arm and smile a bit more._

"_Goodnight, Clem." he said to her._

"_Goodnight, Luke." she softly whispered._

_Once Luke was positive she was asleep, he tried to pull his arm away, but Clem wouldn't let him go. He caressed her cheek again to make sure she didn't wake up._

_Luke heard the bedroom door open. He looked over his shoulder to see Melissa enter the room._

"_Hey, I wanted to check up on you." she said._

"_The kid just fell asleep." he told her._

"_Good, so do you want to pick up where we left off?"_

"_I can't."_

"_What do you mean you can't?"_

"_She won't let go of my arm."_

"_Can't you just pull it out? I mean, she's ten."_

"_Eleven, and I tried. Besides, she wanted me to sleep with her tonight."_

"_So you're going to sleep in that tiny bed with her? I can help you get your arm out."_

"_The kid had a nightmare that left her in tears, am I supposed to say no to her."_

"_You really want to stay like that for the rest of the night."_

"_If it makes her sleep, and she has someone to hug when she has another one, then yes."_

"_Alright, fine."_

_Melissa walked out of the room as Luke turned back to Clementine, who was sleeping peacefully, holding on to his arm like a teddy bear. He tried again to pull his arm out of her hold, only for it to tighten. Yep, he was stuck with her. Not that he minded, either way. He kind of missed her sleeping on his chest in the truck. Sure he was a bit uncomfortable, but Clem seemed to make him forget about it. They'd talk to each other until they both fell asleep. Maybe she missed it, too. It's probably why she's not letting him go._

_Luke felt his eyes become heavy from looking at Clem, sleep was going to overcome him soon. He looked at the little girl one last time, before he joined her in dreamland._

* * *

"Luke, where are we?"

"You'll see when we get to the top."

It's been a couple of days since they entered South Dakota, and they've already made it through most of the state. Luke wanted to make a quick stop to show Clementine something.

"Why are we here, anyways?" she asked.

"To prove you wrong." Luke said as they reached the top of the steps. "Take a look."

Clementine looked at the view in front of her. Four faces in a mountain. Mount Rushmore… Luke was right, it did exist.

"I told you so."

Clementine punched Luke in the arm.

"Hey, no need to be a sore loser, kid."

"I'm not, I just can't believe it's real."

The two found a bench to sit at. Clem leaded against Luke's side and he wrapped his arm around her before they looked at the mountain in front of them.

"You better not fall asleep on me, Clem."

"I won't, Luke."

He rubbed her arm, keeping her warm from the cold breeze. "So what do you think?"

"I like it. It's relaxing." she said.

"You said you wouldn't fall asleep."

"I didn't say it made me tired."

Clementine wanted to tell Luke about how she had trouble reading, but after what happened with the math situation, she was a bit embarassed to. She can read, just not a lot of things.

"Luke?" she looked up at him. He looked down at her, wondering what she had to say. "I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" he asked her.

"I- I can't really… well…" Clem looked down. "Read…"

"I know, kid."

"How did you know?"

"You did practically every problem in the math book except the story problems."

"Do you think you can teach me?"

"Of course, Clem."

"Thanks, so who are these four people?"

"Well, the one furthest left is George Washington, he was our first president. The guy next to him is Thomas Jefferson, he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Then it's Theodore Roosevelt, he had leadership when we had economic growth. The last guy is Abraham Lincoln, he kept the nation together during the Civil War." Luke looked down at Clementine's dumb struck face. "And now I realize that you don't know half of what I'm saying."

"Yep, but how do you know all that?" she asked.

"I had to do a group project with Nick in high school on a landmark. We got assigned Mount Rushmore. Nick, being his lazy-ass self, didn't do any of the work, so I talked to my teacher before our presentation and she gave me all of the credit. I still can't believe Nick graduated high school." Luke explained. "Come on, let's get a better look." he said as he stood up.

Clementine followed suit as they walked towards the monument. Luke let her walk in front of him so he could lift her up and let her sit on his shoulders, so she could see better.

"You like the view up there?" he asked her.

"Yeah. Thanks, Luke." she responded.

"Anything for you, kid."

After a while, Clementine's neck started to cramp up from looking in the same spot. She turned her neck around to ease it up, but she stopped when she glared at the parking lot.

"Luke."

"Yeah, Clem?"

"There's someone here."

"What?"

"In the parking lot, I see someone."

"Is it just him?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"It's not a lurker, is it?"

"It's not, I'm positive."

"Alright, let me get you down." Luke kneeled down to the ground so it would be easier to lift Clem off his shoulders.

Once she was off, Luke instructed her to stay behind him. She agreed and they both walked away from the monument and to the parking lot. The guy Clem saw was looking in their truck.

"Hey, buddy." Luke greeted.

The guy jumped away from the truck, his hands in the air. "I don't want any trouble." he said.

"Well, neither do we." Luke responded.

"You have a kid? Damn, I can't remember the last time I saw a kid." the guy said as he looked at Clementine.

She crossed her arms, Clementine wasn't amused. She remembered when Omid first saw her, and how he reacted. Well, at least he's with Christa and their baby.

The guy was about the same height and size as Luke. Blonde hair, blue eyes, black backpack, and he seemed nice. Then again, so did most of the people Clementine met.

"So, you have a name?" Luke asked him.

"Name's David. How about you two?"

"We would have told you, if you hadn't been looking into our truck." Clementine said.

"Kid…" Luke started.

"I understand. I didn't know this was your truck. I was hoping to find some faster mode of transportation to my uncle's radio station in Wyoming. I'm hoping it's not ransacked of it's supplies. He always kept stuff there in case of natural disasters. But I guess the dead walking around counts." David explained.

"Wyoming, huh?" Luke said.

"Yep. This being your truck, maybe you guys wouldn't mind giving me a ride in exchange for some supplies at the radio station." David offered.

"And if there's nothing there?" Luke asked.

"You guys can have the radio station. It's kind of in the mountains and maybe the power still works."

Luke stayed silent for a moment. He looked at Clementine then back at David. "Alright then. I'm Luke, this is Clementine."

"Oh, like the fruit? Damn, now I'm hungry." David said.

"Luke." Clementine looked up at him, she didn't agree to this.

"You can ride up front with me, Clem can ride in the back." Luke told David.

"Luke!" Clementine yelled. The farm boy looked down at the kid, her gold eyes showing that she didn't like this.

"Can you give us a minute?" Luke asked David.

He nodded before backing away to look at the other abandoned vehicles.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Clem asked Luke.

"We're running low on water, Clem." he said, bending down to her height.

"We can find a river, or a lake, or something. We don't have to go with this guy." she said.

"What's the guarantee we'll actually find a water source? This place he's talking about could be legit. Think about it, Clem. Water, food, medicine, and if it's all gone, it should be a safe place."

"What about Melissa? What about the last person we trusted?"

"If push comes to shove, I can take him. All I'm asking from you, is to ride in the backseat."

"Why do I have to ride in the backseat, though?"

"For one, all of our supplies are back there."

Clem stayed silent for a moment, she really didn't want to go through with this.

After hearing nothing from her, Luke pulled her into a hug. "I care about you, kid. I just don't want you to get hurt. You trust me, don't you?"

Clementine wrapped her arms around his neck. "Of course I trust you, Luke."

"Good." Luke's hand slid down her back until he felt the outline of her gun tucked in her jeans and hidden under her shirts. "Because I. Trust. You." Luke pressed the gun against her back. "You understand?

Clementine nodded a slight smirk played against her face before it faded. "Yeah, I do."

Luke released the girl before tilting her hat down. "That's why I love ya, kid." Luke stood up. "David, you ready to go?"

"Yep, so you two are alright with me tagging along?" David said

"You know where the radio station is?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, I've been there at least a hundred times." David said.

"Then that's where we're going." Luke said.

The three got in the truck. Luke driving, David in the seat next to him, and Clementine sitting in the middle in the backseat. To be honest, Luke was a bit uncomfortable with this plan, but he knew that Clem had his back if anything went wrong.

* * *

**A/N: For this, Clementine DID NOT watch Kenny kill Carver. If you remember from the first chapter, her and Luke went back to Howe's. Put the pieces together. Anyway, I did have to do research for Mount Rushmore. So I kinda worked hard on this. I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Nightmares Unfold

**A/N: Okay, the next few chapters are darker, than the past three. That being said, if you feel this story should go to M, please PM me telling me to do so. If I am, I'll notify via Profile. So I hope you enjoy this. I added some cuteness in there for all you lovelies. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game.**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5534

Chapter 4

* * *

_NOW ENTERING WYOMING_

"So, were you close to your uncle?" Luke asked.

"I'd guess so, I'd see him a few times a year when I was a kid." David said.

"You think he's alive?" Luke asked.

"I don't know, he started to drink ever since my mom died. You know, being his sister and all." David responded.

"That must be tough." Luke said.

"Yeah, it was. So what happened to your parents, kid?" David asked Clementine.

"They died when all of this started." she responded.

David made Clementine feel uncomfortable ever since Luke invited him to come along. She hated the idea. Maybe it's because of what happened between her and Melissa.

"Is that when you met Luke?" David asked.

"No, we met a couple years later." Clementine said, wanting to avoid talking about Lee to him.

"She had a dog bite on her arm. The group I was with when we met thought it was a lurker bite." Luke explained.

"So they locked me in a shed." Clementine said.

"You trying to make me look like the bad guy, kid? Should I mention that you broke out, snuck into our cabin, and stole from us." Luke said.

"I stitched up my own arm and fought off a walker that broke in right when I was done." Clementine said.

"If I didn't think you were a badass then, then what you said to us when we let you out definitely convinced me." Luke told her.

Clementine smiled remembering what she said to them. The whole "Still. Not. Bitten." thing.

"Seems like you two came a long way since then." David said.

"Yeah, we did. We're actually nearing a full year." Luke told him.

"Impressive." David said.

Impressive? They almost died how many times? Clementine can't even believe they made it this far together. She still didn't trust David. Nothing about him set her off yet, but still there's something not right. She thought the same way about Melissa after Luke slept with her that one night. Something was off. At first Clementine thought it's because this was the first time after Arvo they let someone join their group. Then she found out the real reason about a month after they met Melissa.

* * *

_"Let me go!" Clementine yelled as she struggled in Melissa's hold._

_"How many times do I have to tell you? Shut up!" Melissa said before slapping a hand over the child's mouth._

_Clementine and Melissa were out on a supply run. Melissa and Luke usually go on supply runs, leaving Clementine at the house to defend it. But Luke woke up sick, so he asked Clementine to go with Melissa while he stayed at the house. Melissa dragged Clem to the other side of the city and pulled her into an abandoned building that was pretty much clean of supplies. When they were about to leave, Melissa grabbed her and twisted her arm behind her back before pinning her up against the wall. She took her gun and put it on a bookshelf. Once she was disarmed, Melissa dragged her upstairs and pulled her into a bedroom._

_Clementine bit her hand. Biting usually works when she's being attacked._

_"Ow! You little bitch!" Melissa yelled from the bite._

_"What do you want with me?" Clementine asked._

_"Don't act all innocent. I know your plan." Melissa said._

_"What the hell are you talking about?" Clementine asked._

_"I know you like Luke."_

_"What?"_

_"I know you saw us kissing. That nightmare thing was cute, I almost believed it myself."_

_"This is bullshit! I don't like Luke!"_

_"Don't play that little girl card on me, hun. I see the way you look at him, I know you can't stand not being Luke's favorite."_

_"Compared to you, I always am." Clementine was sick of this. Using her mouth was the only way she could fight back._

_"Keep telling yourself that. All I'm doing is making sure you don't come between us again." Melissa looked to the dresser next to her. "That'll work."_

_Melissa grabbed a rag off the dresser and shoved it in Clementine's mouth, preventing her from screaming. The little girl tried to protest, despite the cloth in her mouth. She couldn't believe this. Luke was her best friend, they've been through thick and thin together. What way is she looking at him? Clem got over the fact that there was another female in Luke's life. She didn't care, she could still run to Luke with any problems she had. Melissa thought otherwise._

_The older woman shoved Clementine against the wall. The hit stunned her for bit, she slid down to the floor to untwist her arm, getting the feeling back into it. She pulled the cloth out of her mouth, gagging a bit at the taste. Melissa opened a closet door and started searching inside of it, glaring at the kid every now and then. Making sure she doesn't escape._

_"What exactly do you plan to do?" Clementine asked her._

_"Ditch you." Melissa said._

_"Luke will never love you if you do that. He cares about me more than anything."_

_"I guess you've met your match, kid. Walkers seem like a good ruse."_

_Melissa pulled something out of the closet and started unzipping it. It was a suitcase. A big suitcase. Once it was open, Melissa made her way towards Clementine. She grabbed her non-sore arm and dragged the kid to the suitcase, trying to force her in it. Clem fought her best she could, but Melissa managed to fit the child in it, zipping it closed. Clementine punched and kicked from the inside, trying to open it again. She heard some kind of click from the outside._

_"Stop fighting, you're not getting out of there."_

_"Melissa, let me out!"_

_"Well, I can't now."_

_"Why not?"_

_"I'm sure you'll figure it out."_

_"But I'll die in here!"_

_"That's not my problem, is it? Don't worry, I'll tell Luke about your demise."_

_Clementine felt the suitcase get picked up and thrown in most likely the closet. She heard the door close, leaving her in even more darkness. Clem felt around the suitcase for the back of the zipper. She found it, she was only able to pry it open a little bit._

_Seeing as that failed, she started shouting for help while she fought against the closed suitcase. Clementine was going to suffocate if she didn't get out. She could feel herself sweat as the temperature in the suitcase rose, and the little amount of oxygen getting to her brain._

_No. She wouldn't let herself go out like this. Trapped in a suitcase by a crazy bitch. No way out, no weapons… Wait. Clementine rummaged through her pockets in the cramped space and pulled out the ice pick that Melissa was too stupid to take off of her._

_"Thank you, Jane!" she muttered._

_She aimed the point at the cover of the suitcase and jabbed the weapon in it. Clementine pulled it back and felt around the area where she stabbed with her free hand to reveal a small hole. She smiled in relief. She was going to escape, but she had to work fast._

_After several stabs in the cover, Clementine was able to make a hole to slide her arm through. She reached out of the hole, feeling the cool air on her arm as she felt around the outside of the suitcase looking for the zipper. A smile came across her face when she found it, then it faded when she felt a spin dial lock through the zipper holes, keeping them together. Clementine pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn't break. She didn't want to risk losing her ice pick by trying to bash it open, besides it probably wouldn't work._

_"Shit." she muttered._

_Clementine pulled her arm back in the suitcase, she knew what her only option was. She had to make the hole big enough for her whole body to slip through._

_She was running out of time. The air was getting stuffy and it was hard to breathe. Clementine angled the ice pick up at the cover again and stabbed. It took a long time to make the hole for her arm, and she knew that if she didn't hurry, she'd die. Clem didn't stop when her arm was tired and cramped, she pushed through it._

_Lack of fresh oxygen started to get to her brain, causing her to slow down her process. Clem gave the cover a few more stabs before she tried to fit through. The cover was stiff, wanting to remain its shape. She pushed the cover as hard as she could with her hands as she sat up. Clem squeezed her head through the hole as she felt cool air hit her sweaty face._

_The eleven-year-old gasped for the fresh air. Closet air was much better than suitcase air. Her tired body managed to pull the rest of herself out. Clementine flopped out on the floor, she was exhausted. She was too tired to move._

_Eventually, it took over her body, and Clementine passed out._

* * *

_Luke just finished a can of beans. He was in the kitchen, Luke started feeling a bit better, so he decided to eat something. The sun just finished setting, usually when he and Melissa go searching for supplies, they come back when the sun begins to set. Luke was getting a bit worried._

_He heard the front door in the living room slam open, so he went to go investigate, only to find a panting Melissa._

_"Melissa, thank god. I was getting worried." Luke said as he walked up to her. "Where's Clementine?" his voice turned to worry once he realized that she wasn't there._

_Melissa looked up at him, trying to tell him with her green eyes._

_"Melissa, what happened?" Luke asked. This was all some big prank, Clem was going to come up behind him and scare him, right?_

_"Walkers came out of nowhere… We tried to shoot our way out, but there was too many of them. Clem and I made a break for it, but she tripped. I tried to go back to help her, but a walker grabbed me. After I shot it, I heard a click come from Clementine's gun. A walker was coming towards her and her gun was empty. I tried to shoot it, but mine was empty, too. Once I realized it, I heard her scream as the walker fell on top of her, and… Oh god…" Melissa lied._

_Luke didn't want to believe it. He couldn't. His Clementine... eaten alive… This couldn't be real. He had to be hallucinating._

_"No… She can't be…" Luke trailed off._

_"I'm sorry, Luke." Melissa said._

_Luke walked away from Melissa, running his hands through his hair. Why her, out of everyone, why did it have to be Clementine. She didn't do anything to deserve it, especially that harsh of a death._

_Luke punched the wall. "I should have gone."_

_"Luke, baby. You're sick." Melissa said as she made her way over to him._

_"She'd still be alive." Luke's voice quivered as he spoke. He was going to break any minute._

_"Don't think about that right now." Melissa lightly ran her hand down his chest. "We have the house to ourselves tonight, I can make you feel better." her fingers tried to push it's way into his jeans, but Luke pushed her away. He just wanted to think about Clementine._

_Melissa feared this would happen. The kid was right about Luke caring for her, but there was no way that he loves Clem more than her._

_Luke said he was going upstairs before starting his way. Melissa watched him as he walked straight to Clementine's old room. She figured that she'd give him a day or two to grieve._

_Luke opened the door to the child's room, expecting to see Clem sleeping on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. Seeing it empty killed him. Luke sat down on the bed, burying his head in his hands._

_Clementine. That sweet, little girl was gone. Luke tried to remember what his last conversation to her was. It was this morning, just a little while after he woke up feeling like shit. Melissa wanted to stay to take care of him, but Luke wanted her and Clementine to go look for more medical supplies. Being sick reminded him that they were running low. Clementine came into the room after not hearing from him in a while. She was sorry that he was sick. He assured her that he'd be fine. Luke remembered the last thing she said to him. _"Get some rest, Luke. I want you to be well when I kick your ass at poker."

_Luke felt a tear rush down his check at what happened next. Clementine placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, like he does to her. Then they all said their goodbyes. That was the last time he saw her._

_Damn it. Clementine had to be all cute then. That just broke Luke's heart even more. He only been told like five minutes ago, but he missed her. He missed her small head on his chest, her tiny arms around his neck, her curly hair for his fingers to run though when she sleeps. Her adorable pigtails, her sassy attitude, her little smirk she does when she has a devilish idea, or when she just been dealt cards in poker to try and throw him off his game. Her soft skin, her cute smile, and most of all, those amazing, golden eyes. Luke was going to miss looking at them._

_"Clementine… Wherever you are, I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."_

* * *

_Clementine woke up the next morning, remembering what happened yesterday with Melissa. She had to get back to Luke and tell him that she's okay._

_She was full of energy now. She just had to hope Melissa didn't convince Luke to leave town, or worse._

_Clem got up from the ground and picked up her ice pick from the suitcase before making her way to the closet door. She tried to open it, but it wouldn't. The door wasn't locked, she could turn the knob. It was that it wouldn't open, something was pushed up against it._

_She gave up trying to open the stupid door. She was trapped. Clem almost died in a suitcase, and she wasn't going to let herself die in a closet. There had to be a way out._

_Even though it was dark, Clem could make out something in the wall. It was this big square that was floor level. She made her way over to it and bent down to see what it was. After feeling around it, she found that the square was sticking out on one side. Clementine pulled on it, revealing a secret passageway in the closet._

_Yes! She was going to escape. Clementine didn't hesitate to crawl through the passage. It lead to a smaller closet, after opening that door she found herself in a smaller bedroom. The sun blinded her for a bit, because she's been in the dark for so long. She let her eyes adjust before she made her way out of the room and downstairs._

_"Okay… Now what?" she said aloud._

_Clementine surprisingly found her gun on the bookshelf Melissa put it on. The shelf it was on was almost out of her reach. Clem had to stand on her toes and really stretch for just her fingers to touch her gun. She managed to pull it off the shelf, but she didn't get a hold of it and the gun hit her in the face._

_Clem held her face, she could feel her eyes water. That fucking hurt. After the pain subsided, Clem picked up her gun off the floor, finding it lighter than usual._

_"Empty… Figures…" she muttered after checking her ammunition. She at least still had her ice pick. It was morning, if she hurried, she could make it back to the house before nightfall._

_Clementine opened the front door to the house and ran out. She tried to remember what way they came from, but was interrupted by some growling. She turned around to see a walker coming towards her. She looked at the weapons in her hands, an empty gun and an icepick. Clementine tucked the gun in her jeans and got in a fighting stance with her icepick. She waited until the walker got close before kicking it in the knee and stabbing it in the back of it's head. Jane was right, this was extremely effective._

_Once she pulled the icepick out, Clem noticed a tireless, beat-up, red car down the street. She searched it yesterday before Melissa kidnapped her. Either way, they both came from that street. Clementine made a break for the way she came from yesterday, before more walkers emerge. She didn't know what Melissa told Luke. Most likely something to do with walkers. But once Clementine finds them, the first thing she was going to do was… Hug the shit out of Luke, then she'd rat out Melissa. Then they'll break up, and she and Luke would leave._

_Maybe Melissa was onto something when she said Clem was trying to get between her and Luke… No, Melissa was the crazy one. Clementine had no problem with her. Melissa got jealous and nearly got her killed._

_Clem kept running, killing any walker that she needed to kill. Retracing her steps to get back to the house wasn't that hard, but she'd worry occasionally that she went down the wrong path._

_Was she scared at what Melissa might do once she sees that the kid is alive? No. She was scared that Melissa convinced Luke into doing something he shouldn't._

* * *

_Luke hardly got any sleep last night, he was too busy thinking about Clementine. After waking up in her bed the next morning, he wanted to go find her body, but Melissa said that she probably came back as a walker. She didn't want Luke to see the kid like that. Plus she couldn't remember where she and Clementine were when she died._

_He wanted to be alone for the morning, Melissa tried to talk him out of it, but it didn't work. So, Luke was in the truck, sitting in the driver's side. It was their place. So many memories in that vehicle, Luke figured he'd try to find some sort of closure, but he couldn't._

_Luke always tried to be strong, for his old group and for the little girl. Now that they're all gone, he had no reason to hold back. He lost them all, without a chance to say goodbye. He would do anything to see them again._

_The hairband with the white flower on it was still hanging from the mirror. Clem's corsage. If Luke knew that Clementine was going to end up dead almost two months after her prom, he would have told her a lot more things when they danced together._

_A knock on the truck door window interrupted his thoughts. Luke looked through the glass to see Melissa open the door, letting the cool air in._

_"How are you feeling, Luke?" she asked._

_"I don't know…" he responded._

_"You should come out of there, you've been in here all morning." Melissa asked._

_"I've been in here for five minutes." Luke stated._

_"Luke, baby, I'm positive that it's at least one in the afternoon. You've been sitting in here since practically sunrise."_

_The farm boy was silent for a moment. "I just wish it was me. I didn't want you to go alone, and she could take care of herself. I thought she would be safe, but I sent her out… I sent her away, and it got her killed."_

_Melissa felt bad that Luke blamed himself for the kid's death. Even though she did technically kill her, Luke did send Clementine to be alone with her. Melissa always tried to find a way to get rid of Clementine easily without Luke becoming suspicious. He made it ten times easier on her part._

_But he looks so depressed now. She needed a new plan. Melissa didn't want it to come to this, but she had no other choice. She wanted him to end his suffering._

_"Luke, something's been on my mind lately. For the past few of days now, I figured out how to finally be happy. I think it'll work for you, too."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"What do you have left to live for? I mean, why wait to die?"_

_Luke looked at Melissa in surprise at what she said. "No, Melissa. You can't think about things like that. Clem would have wanted me to survive and that's what I intend on doing."_

_"She would have wanted you to be happy. This is the only way you can be." Melissa said._

_"It's still not right." Luke responded._

_"What is left out there? The girl's corpse is probably walking around, and I don't want you to see that. Please, Luke. It'll be better for us. We can be together, forever. We wouldn't have to worry."_

_Melissa was right. He didn't want to see Clementine as a walker. If he did, he probably wouldn't bring himself to kill her. Or he would, and have the image stuck in his head. Maybe this was better._

_"We can confess what we want to each other, and then we can… Pull the trigger." Melissa said._

_For some reason, Luke managed to force a nod before climbing out of the truck and shutting the door._

* * *

_The sun was about to set, and Clementine was only two blocks away from the house. She had no plan, and no idea on what she was going to do. As long as Luke knew she was okay, Clem could sort out her deals with Melissa in a calm manner... And she knew that wasn't going to happen._

_Finally the house was in sight. Clementine took a minute once she got to the front door to catch her breath, because she practically ran the whole way here, then she quietly opened the door._

_She didn't want to make a lot of noise, because she didn't want to run into Melissa before running into Luke. The house was quiet, which was normal, but there was something different. Whatever it was, she didn't like it. After inspecting the first floor and the garage, Clementine hoped that they were upstairs._

_The eleven-year-old tip-toed her way up the stairs and to Luke and Melissa's room. As she got closer, she could hear voices. They belonged to the two adults. Clementine couldn't help, but eavesdrop._

_"Is that everything you want to get off your chest?" Melissa's voice asked._

_"Yeah… It is…" Luke's voice responded._

_Clementine finally got to the top and made her way to the closed door of the bedroom._

_"You ready?" Melissa asked._

_"I guess so." Luke said._

_Clementine opened the door to see Melissa and Luke sitting on the bed with their backs to her. Luke started lifting a gun to his head. "Luke!" the little girl called out._

_Luke let the gun fall out of his hand as he turned around. "Clem?" There she was, in the flesh, alive and well._

_Luke ran over to her, embracing Clem in a tight hug at her level. Clementine gladly accepted the hug he was giving her. Luke stood up, still holding on to Clem's little body as her legs dangled in mid air, forcing her to tighten her hold around his neck. Damn he missed her, and she missed him._

_"Are you hungry?" he asked as he set her back down. "You know what, I'm just going to get you something to eat." Luke walked out of the room, happy that he got to hold her again._

_Clementine watched him leave, relieved that he was okay. But the way he held her, made her think that he went through absolute hell. All because of Melissa._

_The eleven-year-old turned back to the woman, their eyes narrowed at each other, silence cutting through the air better than a knife. Clem pulled her gun out while Melissa grabbed the one on the bed, before aiming at each other. It was a really quick draw._

_"You going to shoot me?" Melissa asked._

_"No, you're not worth the bullet." Clementine responded._

_"Really? I thought it was because that gun is empty." Melissa said._

_She was right, her gun was empty. But Clementine didn't lower it. "You really think I'd come in here unarmed? I found some ammo on the way back here."_

_"Like hell you did. So how'd you get out?"_

_"Why would I tell you?"_

_"Clem, listen. When I saw Luke after I told him you didn't make it, I felt guilty. He blamed himself, and I wished that I could have a second chance to change things. We can do that now." Melissa slowly put the gun in her back pocket before making her way towards Clementine. "See? We can settle this. We can become friends."_

_Melissa reached out to the little girl and gently pulled the empty gun out of her hands. Clementine backed away slowly from her, out of the room until her back was up against the wooden railing. Melissa followed her, until she was right in front of the kid._

_"Only on one condition." Clementine spoke. She had to know if Melissa was telling the truth or not. "You stay away from Luke."_

_"And you're still in the way." Melissa pulled a switchblade out and tried to stab Clementine with it. The kid grabbed her wrist, trying to keep the knife at bay._

_The weight of both of them caused the wooden railing to snap. Melissa's switchblade slipped out of her hand as both she and Clementine fell from the second floor to the first._

_Both of the girls took a minute for the impact to sink in before Clem saw the knife. Something snapped in her. The eleven-year-old fought the pain in her back as she quickly sat up, picking up the knife from the floor. Clem lunged at Melissa who got ready to fight back._

_"What the hell, Clem?" Luke grabbed the kid pulling her away from the older woman. He pulled Clem to her feet as she dropped the switchblade._

_"Luke, are you okay?" Melissa asked as she got to her feet, like she was concerned for Luke's health._

_"I should be asking both of you that." Luke said._

_"Melissa's crazy! She tried to kill me, twice!" the kid explained._

_"That's not what it looked like to me, Clem." Luke told her._

_"Luke, I think you're still sick. Clementine's dead remember, you're hallucinating." Melissa said._

_"She's right here!" Luke exclaimed pointing at the little girl._

_"I'm sorry, but there's nothing there." Melissa said._

_"No, Luke! I'm real, I'm here!" Clementine yelled. Melissa was acting like she was a figment of his imagination as a ruse to convince Luke that she was dead._

_Luke looked down at Clem. He saw her. She was there. But could he really be hallucinating? Did he miss her that much? He just recovered from a sickness, right when Clem was killed. It could be possible that he's imagining all this, but why did Clementine look so real?_

_"Luke, you need to get over the fact that she's not coming back. It's not good for your health. You need rest." Melissa said, trying to persuade him into siding with her._

_"Luke you're fine. Melissa kidnapped me, and locked me in a suitcase. I escaped and I ran all the way back here to save you from her. Please, you have to believe me!" Clementine yelled._

_The farm boy didn't know who to believe. Each side seems legit. Clem who claims to be a victim of kidnapping, or Melissa who claims that he's still sick and it's causing his brain to make an imaginary Clem._

_Melissa moved closer to Luke, grabbing a hold of his face, forcing him to look at her. "Sweetie, I'm real. I'm right in front of you. I know you're upset about that little girl, but you need to forget about it. When my ex died, I kept seeing him, too. Once I let that go, he was gone."_

_Luke took in her words. "You expect me to forget about Clem?"_

_"Not right now, but eventually." Melissa said._

_There was no way in hell Clementine would let Luke side with Melissa. There had to be some way to convince him. The kid saw his hand, sparking an idea in her head. Clem grabbed his arm before she bit his hand._

_"Ow!" Luke pulled away from Melissa and Clementine before looking at his hand. He could see Clem's teeth marks in his skin. Wait… Clem's teeth marks? He looked at the little girl, bending down to her level. Luke took a hold of her upper arms. "You're real, aren't ya?"_

_"Yes. Yes!" Clementine exclaimed before hugging him._

_Luke accepted the hug. After letting go, he stood up as he glanced at Melissa. She had her gun pointed at Clem. Luke pulled her out of her line of shot, but he ended up in it by the time Melissa shot the bullet._

_Luke fell to the floor from the shot. Clementine couldn't believe it. He got himself killed to save her life. The kid looked at Melissa, her eyes full of hatred, anger, and sadness._

_"You killed him!" she said trying so hard to keep her voice steady._

_"I meant to shoot you!" Melissa yelled at her. "But at least we'll still be together."_

_With that said, Melissa brought the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Clementine watched as her lifeless body fall to the floor. The kid closed her eyes tight before covering her face with her hands, holding all of her tears in._

_The shit has hit the fan so hard. Clem wished that she went back to bed instead of trying to talk to Luke about her nightmares. Maybe then he'd still be alive. Melissa wouldn't have gotten jealous. Things could have been different._

_Clementine heard a grunt fill the silence in the air. She looked over to Luke hissing in pain, holding his side. His side! Luke passed out from the pain, causing the little girl to run all over the house looking for the last of their medical supplies. They were out of bandages, so Clementine took Luke and Melissa's bed sheet and ripped a long strip off._

_"What did Christa say?" Clem asked herself, trying to remember what the woman taught her about tending to bullet wounds._

_Clementine finally sat on her knees next to Luke's unconscious body with all the supplies the gathered. She rolled up his shirt, removing his hand from the bullet wound. She found two, the bullet must have gone straight through. Thank god._

_She did best she could for the wound, cleaning it, wrapping it up in the strip she got from the sheet. All Clem could do was hope that he was going to be okay._

_The bullet was only a centimeter into his side. She figured that he'd be okay, but even she wasn't sure. The thought of him dying to save her was one she never wanted to think about it. It'd be like Lee all over again. She didn't want that to ever happen again. It was bad enough the first time through._

_Clementine grabbed Luke's hand, pressing it up to her face. She wanted him to tell her that he'd be okay. She wanted to feel his hand caressing her cheek like the night he slept with her because she was too scared to sleep alone. She wanted his hand to run through her hair._

_A couple tears ran down her face. She needed him. He never underestimates her, he always trusts her, and he cares about her. She's a kid, it's hard for people to treat her like everyone else._

_Luke's hand shifted in her hold, wiping the wet streams off her cheeks. "I'm not leaving ya, kid."_

_Clementine looked at the older man's body, smiling seeing that he was awake. Luke tried to sit up, but felt pain from his wound. He hissed in pain before laying back down, using both hands to hold his side. Clem placed a hand on the Luke's, letting him know that she's still there._

_He asked about what happened after he was shot, so Clementine explained what happened to Melissa and how she healed him up. After the explanation, Clem stayed with Luke, letting him rest up on the floor. She did what he asked, like getting him food and water, mostly because she refused to let him move from the spot._

_Clem dragged Melissa's body outside while Luke was asleep on the floor. She gave him a pillow and a blanket for him to sleep with. After the body was out, Clementine was tired. Since she didn't want to leave Luke, she slept on the floor next to him._

_Once Luke was healed up enough, the duo grabbed the remaining supplies they had, and piled it into the truck. Before they left, Luke grabbed a blanket for colder nights, and with Clementine's help, a mattress which they threw in the bed of the truck. Spring has started, and the weather was only going to get warmer._

_When they were both ready, they got into the truck and drove away from the house, away from the city. Luke has kept an eye on Clementine since then, he didn't want her to get out of his sight again._

_The weather hasn't completely warmed up to the point to when they could sleep out in the truck bed, but it was getting there. It was only a few days after they left the house when something happened. It wasn't major, like they ran into walkers or bandits, but it was pretty bad. Mostly on Clementine's part._

_It began right after she and Luke fell asleep in the backseat._

* * *

It was dark. There was nothing to be seen around her. Clementine started to panic. Where the hell was she?

"Run, Clementine. Run." A voice echoed through the darkness.

_'Run? Why run?'_ she thought.

Clem heard a gunshot and felt a bullet fly right past her. She took no hesitation and ran as fast as she could away from where the bullet was fired.

More gunshots were fired and more bullets flew by her, until one went through her knee.

Clementine screamed in pain as she fell to the floor. A single white light flickered on, making a circle around her.

In front of her was a crowbar, just a few feet away. She had to move. Clem brought up her good leg and used it to push herself up so she could stand. She was only able to limp a couple of steps before another bullet went through her good knee, sending her back to the floor with another scream.

Holding her tears back, Clementine turned herself over to her back so she could look at her legs. All the blood slowly dripping out. She could still feel the pain of the bullet going straight through. It hurt to move her legs in any way.

Clem heard footsteps make their way towards her small, crippled body. She looked ahead of herself to see Carver emerge from the darkness. Gun in his hand, face unharmed.

"No..." she said as she used her hands to drag herself away from him. "No! No! No!" This isn't right. She should have woken up by now. She always wakes up before he actually hurts her. Her knees were on fire.

Carver grabbed one of her ankles and pulled the little girl back to him. Clem gritted her teeth to keep herself from crying out in pain. He climbed on top of her, straddling her so she couldn't move away.

"GET OFF ME!" Clementine yelled as she fought as best she could despite the circumstances.

Carver flipped her over so she was laying on her stomach. He pulled her arms behind her back, crossing her wrists. She did her best to pull her arms away from him, only for him to smack the back of her head.

"Quit your squirming." he muttered.

Clementine hissed at the hit, tears ready to fall from her face.

There she was, a bullet wound in each knee to preventing her from standing, and Carver straddling her, tying her hands behind her back with thick, prickly rope. What did she do to deserve this?

Carver has tied her up before, usually just to talk to her and she couldn't fight back. He has hogtied her a couple times, saying that he'd leave her alone if she escaped. Clementine tried so desperately to get out of it, she didn't care if he was enjoying her struggle. She just wanted him to leave her alone. Eventually she'd give up and just lie there, then she'd ask him to untie her and to leave her alone. He'd just smirk and leave her there until she woke up.

This time was different. It was tight, pulling it with every loop it made. And for some reason, she let him do it. Maybe it was because she was too busy holding back her tears. Carver hasn't seen her cry, and she wasn't going to let him.

When he was done, he grabbed her upper arms and pulled, painfully arching Clementine's back.

She could feel him lean towards her, his hot breath on her neck. Clem closed her eyes tight, afraid of what he might do to her.

Next thing she knew, he started kissing the back of her neck. She could feel his tongue push up against her skin, causing her eyes to go wide while she gasped.

What the hell was he doing to her? He's never gone beyond rubbing her sides until now.

He stopped kissing her neck to smirk in Clementine's ear. "There are so many things I wish I could do to you, honey."

"Go to hell." Clementine breathed.

"Why don't you give me a little struggle, huh?"

"I'm not your toy, stop treating me like I am." she said.

Carver released his hold on her arms, letting her body hit the floor. She felt him get off of her before he walked away. Clementine wanted to wipe his saliva off her neck so badly, but he had to be an asshole and restrain her. She tried not to fight the bounds on her wrist, she didn't want to give into him. Instead she rolled over on to her back trying to use the floor to wipe it off.

It didn't really work, so she just rested there, her arms uncomfortably pinned between the floor and her back. Why won't she wake up?

She heard something metal ring throughout the strange place she was in before footsteps made their way back towards her.

Carver came back into view with the crowbar in his hands. He made his way towards her legs.

"You know, Clementine." He started, letting the bent part of the crowbar touch her ankle. He started walking along side her body, dragging the crowbar up her leg. "I only asked one thing from you."

Clementine bit her lip to keep her from crying as it went over her bullet wound, and even tighter as he slowed his pace the further up her leg he got, practically stopping once it grazed her crotch.

"Do you remember what I asked?" he said before picking up the speed of the crowbar as it glided along her stomach, then the middle of her chest. "I asked you not to tell Luke." Carver finally ran the crowbar up her neck and under her chin, tilting her head back.

"You didn't ask, you threatened me!" she yelled at him.

"And I always keep my promises."

With that said, Carver lifted his leg only to shove his foot in Clem's stomach, forcing the little girl to curl her body up. Carver used that to his advantage and hit her in the head with the crowbar.

Clementine couldn't stop the tears from falling from her eyes while she did her best to curl up into a ball and cough violently.

"Oh, would you look at that? Clementine can cry."

"Stop!" she wheezed. "Please..."

"When your friend, Kenny, was bashing my face in with a crowbar, it only took two hits for me to die." he said as knelt down to her. "He didn't stop. You've seen the result of what he did." Carver grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled, forcing her to sit up. It didn't last long before he hit her in the head again.

That was the second time. Two hits with a crowbar. If he was trying to recreate his death on her, she would have been awake by now. She should have been awake long before.

"I can't kill you in your sleep, honey. But that doesn't mean I can't have fun with you."

Carver tightened his grip on the crowbar and hit Clementine in the chest before kicking her in the stomach.

He kept hitting and kicking her all over her body. Her back, arms, the bullet wounds in her knees, her stomach, chest, and her head.

Clementine didn't know how long this went on, but she eventually started coughing up blood. The pain was everywhere and it wouldn't stop. No matter how hard she pleaded, Carver would hit her harder.

"What did telling Luke do for ya?" Carver's foot collided with her spine. "He can't save you, he can't defend you. He can't stop me from doing this to you. It caused more harm to you than good. It's almost as if you gave me permission to do this to you." He hit her head again.

Clementine heard him walk away from her, was he done? She just wanted to fall unconscious and wake up in Luke's warm arms.

She rolled over to her side, coughing up more blood. Her face was itchy from her dried tear stains and blood from her nose and other cuts Carver gave her. It hurt to move anything.

Clem could feel her eyes getting heavy, maybe she was finally waking up. Just when her eyes were about to shut, she heard footsteps coming towards her and something hook on to the belt loop on the back of her jeans.

Even though it hurt, she looked behind her to see Carver standing over her. He hooked the crowbar through her belt loop.

He started to pull her backwards into the darkness with him.

"No!" she cried. "No! No! Please!"

Clementine tried to unhook the crowbar with her bounded hands even though she knew it was impossible. She couldn't do anything, she just watched the trail of blood that she was leaving.

"LET ME GO! PLEASE, STOP!" she begged.

He just kept pulling her out of the light until she was finally consumed in total darkness.

* * *

_Clementine woke up screaming before she started crying her scared, little heart out. That nightmare was fucking torture. She felt someone grab her and she immediately fought back, yelling at whoever it was._

_"No! Stop! Let me go!"_

_"Clem!"_

_"No!"_

_She felt two hands on her face, forcing her to look at him._

_"Clem, look! It's me. It's me..."_

_"Luke..." she hoarsely whispered before she broke down in more tears._

_"Hey, come here." Luke pulled the little girl to him. She curled up in his lap and shivered, before he tightly wrapped his arms around the poor kid._

_Clementine gave herself hiccups from crying so much. Not that it stopped her from continuing to cry. Each hiccup caused Luke's heart to break. Seeing Clementine like this actually hurt him._

_Luke did his best to calm her down. From rocking her, to rubbing her back, stroking her cheek, even running his fingers through her hair, which usually works._

_Clem started coughing, her mouth was dry from screaming and crying. She looked up at the man holding her, noticing the tears on his face. "Luke, are you crying?" her hoarse, hiccuping voice asked._

_Now realizing the tears falling from his eyes, he wiped them away. "Yeah, Clem. I am."_

_"Why?" her voice made him sick to his stomach._

_"Because I hate seeing you like this. It reminds me that you're still a little girl in this fucked up world."_

_Luke reached down to their supplies and pulled out a water bottle, giving it to Clementine. She sat up, gladly accepting it before taking a drink._

_When she was done, Luke gently wiped the tears from her small face and kissed her forehead. Her golden eyes still glistening from them watering._

_"It was Carver, wasn't it?" he asked her._

_Clementine nodded, rubbing the water out of her eyes._

_"Do you feel like telling me what happened?" Luke asked her. "I can understand if you don't want to, but I just want to make sure he didn't..." The thought of Carver hurting her like that made him sick._

_Clementine took a deep quaking breath before she explained every detail of what Carver did to her. Crippling her, tying her up, him kissing her neck, beating her senseless with a crowbar and his foot, and how she begged for mercy as he dragged her away into the darkness._

_"That sick, perverted fuck." Luke muttered under his breath. This was the first time Carver has physically hurt her, all because she told him about her nightmares._

_"I know you said he can't hurt me, but it hurt. I felt everything. Every kick, every hit, every shot, every touch." Clementine let the water bottle fall to the floor._

_"I bet it did, kid. I'm sorry."_

_"Why is he doing this to me?"_

_Luke pulled Clem back in his arms. He didn't know how to answer her question. All he could do was hold her and let her vent. Carver was right, he couldn't save her, defend her, and he couldn't stop him from doing what he wanted to her._

_"I don't know, kid. My guess is that he thinks you're easier to pick on. Whether that's what it is or not, he's a dick, and you're better than him." Luke knew that wasn't the reason why Carver was torturing her._

_He remembered the day Kenny took the blame for Clementine, how she almost admitted to taking the stupid radio. Luke heard her trying to fess up. If Kenny didn't take the blame for her, Luke knew Carver wouldn't have bashed her face in with the radio._

_When Carver was beating the shit out of him, he interrogated him. Wanting to know where the other radio was after finding the one in the pen. He asked if Clementine had it, if she helped him. Of course, he denied to his claims, but Carver didn't believe him. He said that if he found the radio on her, he'd have her sleep in his office for the night. With the curtains drawn._

_Luke was pretty sure Carver was mad when Kenny admitted to it instead of Clementine, almost as if he was looking forward to her sleeping in his office. As if he'd let her actually sleep, fucking asshole._

_Luke never told the kid about Carver's intentions for her. He knew it would scar her._

_That's why Carver was torturing her, to scar the poor kid. To fill in for raping her. Thank god he's dead._

_There's no way she would be sleeping after that dream, Luke knew that. He started rubbing her back again, trying to get her to relax more before he put his plan into action. Luke slid his hand under her arm and tickled her. Clementine tried to shrug it off, but she couldn't help it. She started giggling and squirming as Luke continued to tickle her._

_After getting her to laugh for a while, Luke stopped tickling her, letting her to catch her breath._

_"There's that cute, little smile, I love." he said to her. "You think you can keep it on your face?"_

_Clementine looked up at him. "You really think my smile's cute?"_

_"Yes, Clem. I do, and like I said back at the clothing store, I'd kill to see that smile on your face everyday."_

_The young girl hugged Luke before snuggling her head right under his chin._

_"You going to be okay?" Luke asked._

_He felt Clementine's head nod against him._

_"Alright, now try to get some rest, kid." Luke yawned._

_Right when he was about to fall asleep, Luke felt Clementine pull her head up and kiss his cheek. __"Thank you." she whispered before letting her head rest under his chin and wrapping her arms around his torso, snuggling him tighter._

_Luke felt his face blush from Clementine's kiss before tightening his hold on the kid._

_No more tears, no more crying. Clem was finally sleeping peacefully. He was her responsibility, even though she can take care of herself. One thing is for certain, Luke missed Clementine sleeping on him. It felt like there was an empty spot where her head usually goes. He also missed looking at her adorable face while she slept. It reminded him that not everything in the world today was terrible._

_With that thought, Luke found himself drifting off to sleep, hanging on to probably the only good thing left in his world._

* * *

"Take a left here." David instructed.

Luke did as told. According to David, he said that they were real close to the radio station. Even though he hasn't done anything to set her off, Clementine still had a weird feeling about him.

"Right there, on top of the hill." David said.

"I see it. You see it, kid?" Luke asked.

"Yep." Clem responded.

David was telling the truth. The radio station was small, maybe about four or five times bigger than the shed Clementine was thrown into. Maybe even bigger. It was a little ways from the town, which was good for a lookout point. Now all they could hope for is that there was actually supplies in there.

Luke made it to the top of the hill and parked the truck. "So what makes you think that the power still works?" Luke asked as he got out of the truck.

"My uncle loved going green. He ran it on solar panels and stored the power in generators for when it was raining or during the night." David explained.

"Smart." Luke commented.

"Yep, all we have to do it turn the generator on and hope it still works." David said. "Luke, you mind doing that? It should be around back. Clem and I will check inside, make sure it's clear."

"Alright…" Luke responded. While David started making his way inside the station, Luke pulled Clementine aside. "If he tries anything, don't hesitate to shoot or scream, okay? But only do it if you need to."

"Okay." she nodded before following David inside.

Luke walked around the radio station looking for the generator. When he found it, he turned it on, listening to it buzz. It worked, they had power. He heard a groan from down the hill. Luke turned his attention to it to find a walker crawl its way to him. Thanks to the hill, he was slow and Luke was able to kill him with one swing of a machete.

The walker looked to have been recently killed. It was shot in the chest multiple times to kill it the first time. Remembering what Jane told Clementine about recently killed walkers, Luke searched the body. Other than a crumpled up piece of paper and a pen, the body was clean. Out of curiosity, Luke unraveled the paper. Since there was a pen, maybe the guy wrote something down. Turns out he did, but it sent chills down Luke's back.

_'DON'T TRUST DAVID!'_

Luke looked further down the hill, more bodies. Some of them were walkers trying to make their way up the hill as well. Including the one he killed, there was at least ten bodies.

"Clem!" he realized that she was alone with David. He separated them on purpose.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter was meant to be longer, but I cut it off here. Cliffhanger! Please Follow, Favorite, and Review. I love you guys. See you next chapter!**


	5. Chasing Cars

**A/N: Here we are! Chapter 5! I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5543

Chapter 5

* * *

Luke ran back around, his machete in hand. If David's done anything to hurt Clementine, Luke would kill him. He ran inside the radio station only to see Clementine in the soundbooth, her hands tied above her head and a gag in her mouth. Her feet barely touching the floor.

"Clem!" he yelled as he ran to her in the sound booth, pulling the gag out of her mouth. "Hey, you okay?"

"Luke, stop!" she yelled at him as he started to untie her wrists.

"Where did he-"

"Luke, it's a trap!"

It was too late, Luke felt something hit the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. Clementine saw David, he used her gun to knock Luke out.

She tried to pull her hands free from her bounds with the progress that Luke made, only to be stopped by David shoving the gun in her side.

"Easy, kid. Don't make this harder than it had to be." he said.

"I should have shot you when I had the chance." Clementine said.

David tilted her head up, forcing her to look at him. "And if you do anything out of line, I'll shoot you _and_ Luke when I have the chance." David told her. "You understand, _darling_ Clementine?"

Clem stared at him coldly.

"I'll take that as a yes." David put the gun in his back pocket before moving his hands to the bounds on her wrist, retying them. "We don't want you escaping now, do we?"

"What are you going to do to us?" Clem asked.

"You'll find out. Oh, I almost forgot." David pulled the gag back in her mouth, tightening it around her head. Clementine did her best to spit it out while trying to yell at David. "Don't worry, Luke will untie you when he wakes up. Have fun there, kid. Thanks for making it easy for me." he said, patting her cheek before he took Luke's machete and walked out of the soundbooth, locking the door.

The little girl looked down at Luke's unconscious body before nudging him with her foot, trying to wake him up. Clementine couldn't believe what was happening. Luke's out, while she's bound and gagged in a stupid soundbooth.

Minus the gag, she felt like she was in a nightmare with Carver. At least Luke would be able to save her, right? All she could do was wait, occasionally glaring at David through the glass to see what he was doing outside the soundbooth. He would pace around, look through his shelves and boxes, and mess with the control panel outside the soundbooth.

After what felt like forever, David grabbed a cigarette and walked outside. A few seconds later, Luke started shifting on the floor. Clementine looked down at him, hoping he was waking up. Thankfully, he was.

Luke groaned in pain as he held his head, pushing himself up from the floor. The memory of what happened before he was knocked out popped in his head, causing him to ignore his headache and help Clementine.

"Clem, you okay?" he asked as he pulled the gag out of her mouth again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she responded.

"Did he hurt you?" Luke asked before he started untying her wrists.

"No." Clem responded.

Once she was free, Clementine almost fell to the floor. Since her feet could barely touch the floor to begin with, she couldn't trust them to catch her. Thankfully, Luke caught her and pulled her into a tight hug. He thought he'd lost her after finding that note. As much as she wanted to hug him back, Clem's arms had no feeling in them from being held above her head for so long. She buried her head in his shoulder, causing Luke to hug her tighter.

"We'll get out of here, don't worry." he said.

Clementine didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to admit she was scared, because she was. She hasn't truly felt like this in a long time. Luke must have read her mind.

The farm boy pulled her slightly away to look at her. "I know you might be scared, Clem. But I won't let him hurt you, I'll kill him before he lays another hand on you."

"We both know you can't promise that, Luke." Clementine said.

"I'll do my best, Clem. Let's just focus on getting out of here."

"Okay."

"Great," Luke let her go before looking around. "Where did he go?"

"Outside. I think he smokes." Clem said.

The sound booth was empty, minus the rope and gag David used on the little girl. Luke tried slamming his elbow in the glass window, but it was stronger than he thought. He didn't even make a crack.

Luke reached for his machete only to find that it wasn't in his holder. He looked through the glass to find it and Clem's gun on a box out of the room. He didn't even try the door, he knew it was locked.

"Anything?"

"What do you think?"

"No need to get mad at me, kid."

"I'm not mad, I just hate how he used me a bait."

"I told you to shoot or scream if he tried anything."

"The first thing he did when we went inside was pull the gag in my mouth. I reached for my gun, but he grabbed it right when I did and held it to my head. What was I supposed to do?"

"What do you want me to do, Clem? We're both locked in a room with no weapons, and David is going to…"

"He's going to do what? Kill us? I know that, Luke! This is why I can't trust people!"

"You trust me, Clem."

"You're different. I know I can trust you!"

"What's the difference between me and everyone else?"

"In the past few years of my life, I trusted two people and I ended up getting kidnapped by both of them. The first time, I lost Lee. The second time, I almost lost you!"

Luke knew she was talking about Melissa, but he didn't know about what happened to Lee. Other than knowing that the kid shot him before he turned, Luke knew nothing about how he got bit. Clem must have a lot more of survivor's guilt over that than he realized.

The little girl sniffed. "I'm sorry, I just- I just didn't want to go through with that again."

Luke made his way over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I promise I won't have you shoot me."

"Luke… I'm scared."

"I am too, kid." Luke bent down to her level, taking hold of her other shoulder and forcing her to look at him. "Clem, listen to me. The second he opens that door, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can, away from here, find a weapon, and keep yourself safe."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll buy you time to escape." he said.

"No, I'm not going to leave you." Clem said. The thought of losing him killed her.

"For once, Clem. Do as I say. Please?"

"Luke, he'll kill you."

"Then help me when you find a weapon."

"But-"

"I'd rather die keeping you safe, than live to see him kill you."

"No! No! Please!"

"Clem…"

The little girl lunged at Luke, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm staying with you, okay? Don't make me leave you! I can't, I just can't!"

"I love you too much to let him kill you, Clem. So listen to me when I say run." Luke felt her hands grip on to his shirt, she really didn't want to leave him.

The duo heard a door open, causing them to break their hug and look at the guy who came in. David looked at the two, smirking at them before walking over to the box with the weapons on it. He picked up the gun, causing Luke to stand and push Clementine behind him. He wouldn't let David touch her, even if it gets himself killed.

David walked to the control panel. He pressed a button causing the two inside to hear a ringing of a mic being turned on. Clementine and Luke covered their ears until the noise subsided. Once they uncovered their ears, David leaned into the microphone on the control panel.

"Can you two hear me?" he asked.

"What do you think?" Clementine said sarcastically.

"It was just a question, kid. Speaking of which, you're the first kid I've had in there." David said.

"What do you want, David?" Luke asked, getting the attention off the little girl.

"It's cute how you're so protective of her." David grabbed a cassette tape and a red sharpie on the control panel before writing on it. Luke couldn't see what he was writing on the tape.

"Just let us go, we haven't done anything to you." Luke said.

David put the tape in a player before hitting a button. "Here's what's going to happen, I'll tell you to do something, and you're going to do it. Same goes for you, kid. If not, well…" David lifted up the gun pointing at the duo. "Now then, if there are not any more questions… Luke, I want you to hit her."

"What?" There was no way he was hitting Clementine.

"Just give Clementine a nice slap across her pretty, little face." David said.

Luke looked down at Clem, who looked back up at him. He could see the fear in her eyes. "I am not hitting her." he said sternly.

"Alright, if you won't, then I'll do it right after I shoot you." David threatened. "You don't want me tormenting and killing the girl to be the last thing you see, do you?"

Luke stayed silent. The threat, alone, nearly killed him.

"Luke, just do it!" Clementine yelled.

"Clem, I'm not going to-" Luke started.

"I don't care!" she yelled.

"Clem, I-"

"It's a slap, it's not going to kill me!" she yelled at him. "Luke, please…"

She wanted him to do it. Luke knew that it was because she didn't want to lose him, but he still didn't want to hurt her.

"I'm waiting…" David impatiently said.

Luke looked at the man, who just gestured his gun at him. The farm boy looked back at the little girl. He felt his stomach turn as he lifted his hand, watching it rise. Clementine was watching it, too. She just nodded before closing her golden eyes, waiting for impact. And just like ripping off a bandaid, Luke brought his hand down quickly, making contact with the kid's cheek.

Clementine stumbled a bit from the hit, holding it with her hand. She let go a whimper before hissing in pain. It stung, and she expected nothing less. Clem kept her eyes shut, she didn't want to see the guilt in his eyes.

Luke felt sick. He hit her, he actually hit her. His hand tingling from hitting Clem's face. Luke could tell she was holding back. It probably hurt more than it looked.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" David spoke up.

"You're an asshole!" Luke retorted.

David snickered, "Oh, don't worry. This is only the start of what you're going to do."

* * *

Luke tightened his machete holder around his torso. It was over. He walked out of the soundbooth and past David, who was lying on the floor, dead. One bullet through his head. The shot made by Clementine, obviously, when David tried to take her away to do who knows what to her. After what he forced the two of them to do, Luke didn't want Clementine to be alone with him.

After doing what David recently told them to do, he forced Clementine to tie Luke's hands behind his back. Once she was finished, David went inside the sound booth to grab the little girl and practically had to drag her out because she latched on to Luke. Even though he told her to run once David opened the door, she didn't want to leave him.

Once David pulled her out and relocked the door to keep Luke from escaping, Clementine did her best to fight him, and managed to disarm him of the gun. David pushed her to the ground before grabbing Luke's machete. Clem pushed herself away from him on the floor. One of her hands made contact with the gun that David lost, and she grabbed it and shot him without hesitation.

She took a few seconds to catch her breath before unlocking the soundbooth and untying Luke. Once he was free, Clementine's arms wrapped around his neck, nearly choking him. Luke didn't care, he almost lost her.

After the hug broke, the two took turns turning around so they could get dressed. Clem went first, then she walked out of the soundbooth to give Luke more privacy.

The machete laid on the ground next to David's body, Clementine standing over him, the gun by her feet. She was trying to piece together what happened.

It was all over, and they lived. They made it out alive.

Luke picked up the machete and put it in his holder before looking at the Clem. "Come on, kid. You don't need to keep looking at him." Luke started towards one of the shelves, hoping to find some supplies.

"Luke…" Clementine said as she turned her head towards the man, causing him to look at her. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. If anyone is sorry it's me." Luke said.

"I just didn't want to him to kill you." Clem said.

"You had every right to yell at me, kid."

"No, I didn't. I don't care what you did, you only did them because I told you to. It's my fault you feel like shit."

"Clem, it's not your fault. You know as well as I do, he would have killed us both. You were just scared." Luke said. "Let's just see if he has any supplies and get out of here, okay?"

Clementine nodded before helping Luke search through the shelves. On the top shelf, Luke pulled down a small, plastic bin full of cassette tapes and one walkman with headphones. Each tape and two names written on them in red ink. At first he was confused to why David had these tapes, then it hit him. Luke walked over to the control panel and ejected the tape David put in right before he made Luke slap Clem

"That fuck…" Luke muttered as he looked at the tape. It had both his and Clementine's name written on it. David recorded the whole thing.

Luke felt anger run his blood cold as he threw the tape down to the ground, slamming his heel into it a few times. Once the tape was destroyed, he did the same to the others in the box. He was mad at himself. He'd rather die than hurt Clementine in any way, shape, or form. He hurt her in the worst way possible. The kid's probably scarred for life. How is he supposed to live with that. Luke wished that David was alive so he could kill him. He wished that there was something he could have done.

"Luke! You need to see this!"

Clementine's voice pulled him out of his thoughts, leading to him finding a trap door open. She must be down there.

Luke climbed down a ladder that lead to the bottom and found Clem staring in front of her. The older man looked at what she was looking at and went wide eyed like her's did. "Holy shit."

The basement was full of shelves, most of them were fully stocked of supplies. Food, water, medicine, flashlights, batteries, blankets, pillows. It was an amazing sight in this day and age.

There was so much, they couldn't take it all. They both agreed to take only what they needed. In this case, they took three jugs of water, a first aid kit, a few cans of food, a pillow, and a flashlight.

After they pulled those supplies into the truck, Clementine and Luke got in. Clem pulled her knees in and wrapped her arms around them in her seat. Her entire body felt numb. Luke looked at the little girl, she seemed frozen as she just stared out the windshield. He placed a hand on her back, trying to comfort her, but she pulled her head down into her knees as she curled up tighter. Luke retracted his hand after she reacted the way she did, he figured that it would be best to let Clem pull her thoughts together. The poor girl is probably still shaken up over it.

Luke started up the truck before driving away from the radio station. He wanted to run it through the whole building, but he knew he shouldn't. Luke had to keep a level head for her sake.

* * *

One week later….

After the two left the station, Luke drove as far as he could away from it. He eventually found a small cabin and the two decided to stay there for a while. The cabin was one story with a few couches, a table, a fireplace, and a cot. The only other room was a bathroom. It probably was a hunting cabin.

Luke intended to stay for a couple of days to try and fix things between him and Clementine, but the kid got sick. As if she hasn't been through enough, she now has to fight a cold.

It was raining outside. Luke figured that it September started, since the change of weather. Since it was a crappy day, and she was sick, Clementine was sleeping on the couch. Luke took the time to check his back. It's been hurting for a few days and he wanted to see if there was anything wrong.

Luke placed his hands on the sink before looking in the mirror, he could see Clementine sleeping soundly on the couch in the reflection. Ever since last week, Luke's been seeing her as the little girl she is. He knew that she was, in fact, a little girl, but this was the first time in a long time he's been looking at her like that. He usually sees her as a young adult in a child's body, occasionally showing her child side. Now she actually looks like a sleeping pre-teen.

Luke moved away from the mirror to close the bathroom door all the way, he couldn't stand to see her like that. Not after what David made them do. If there was any shred of innocence left in the world, then he took the last of it.

Luke's sore back pulled him back into reality. He took off his shirt and turned around to look at his back in the mirror, finding out why his back hurt so much. Red scratch marks that scattered along the sides of his back in groups of three and four. Some of them were scabs, others had skin peeling off. He knew what they were from. Luke trailed a hand over the marks, wincing in pain once he touched them.

"Jesus, Clem…" he muttered under his breath.

Luke knew the little girl didn't mean to hurt him. She was just scared and in pain. He was the only thing she could hold on to. Thus her drilling her fingernails into his back.

David forced Luke to hit the kid multiple times. The abuse prolonged from there making Clementine punch Luke once in the stomach than another punch to his face. Damn she hit hard. Once the abuse stopped, David told the two to kiss. It's not like they haven't kissed each other before, but David wanted Luke make-out with the kid, tongue and all. Luke had to explain some of this to Clementine, making sure she was comfortable and that she was eleven. The asshole told them to take it a step further, telling Luke to feel her up. Luke protested, he was afraid for Clementine's sake. He wasn't going to touch the kid like that. After David threatened to kill him, Clementine yelled at him to do what he asked. She didn't even know what it was. Luke went slow, waiting for her to tell him to stop. She didn't, instead she bit down on her lip and turned her head away with her golden eyes closed. Things progressed from that when David told the two to strip. He saw the look in Clem's eyes, she was terrified.

Luke slammed his fist in the wall. God, he's not going to forget that, nor what her whimpers sounded like when he was forced to… Rape. He was forced to rape the kid, for David's sick pleasure. And he would take back every second if he could, but he can't. Luke made her cry, and he wouldn't be surprised if she hated him for that.

* * *

Clementine shot up from her slumber, breathing deeply. Carver gave her another nightmare. Why won't he leave her alone? There were times where she was too scared to fall asleep because of him, forcing her to stay up for another hour or so until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

Carver tied her up like David did last week, so he could talk to her. Pretty normal for Carver to do, but he sort of took advantage of her being defenceless. And what he told her stuck with her as well.

Clem swung her legs off the couch and to the floor. She looked around for Luke, but she couldn't find him. She feels detached from Luke lately, mostly because she's been sleeping off her cold, but there was always this weird silence between them and it made her uncomfortable. It wasn't like the time she kissed Luke in the backseat of the truck, it was really different. She knew it was because of what David made them do, but she could only understand so much of it. Luke knew that too.

The little girl felt her stomach turn. Clem clamped a hand over her mouth before running outside on to the covered porch that strangely reminded her of the old cabin. She uncovered her mouth to let herself puke onto the grass below. This stupid bug was making her puke at least once everyday.

Clementine took a few seconds to breathe before making her way over to the other side of the porch so she didn't look at her vomit. She rested her arms on the wooden railing and stared out into the rain. The smell of the downpour was relaxing.

After a few minutes of listening to the rain, she heard the front door open and footsteps coming towards her. Clem glanced out of the corner of her eye to see faded orange sleeves on two forearms, propping the owner on the railing next to her. Luke.

"You scared me for a minute when I saw that you weren't on the couch." he spoke.

Clementine didn't say anything.

"How ya feelin' kid?" he asked.

"I don't know. I threw up over there, so..." she responded.

Silence fell between the two.

"I used to hate the rain." She spoke. "I couldn't play outside with my friends in the neighborhood, so I was stuck inside. It was so boring. One time, my friends and I played with chalk on the sidewalk and drew anything that came to mind, then the rain started to pour and I watched, from the living room window, as the water washed away everything we drew." Clementine paused for a moment. "Sometimes my mom would make cookies and we'd have them with milk while we watched movies together. I always thought that it was weird that she liked the rain, but I guess it was to spend time with me." A faint smile came across her face, but quickly faded. "Kind of funny that now it's probably the only thing between life and death."

"It's really hard to remember that you're just a kid, you know?" Luke said. "You want to talk about it?"

"I don't know…"

"I'm just making sure you're okay. I mean, I don't know about you, but I hate how our relationship has been the past week."

"You don't think that I hate it, too?"

"Do you still trust me?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that you're the only person I can."

Do you hate me?"

"Why would I?"

"Because I hate myself. I did things to you that you didn't even know what they were. I mean, I fucking raped you, for God's sake."

"It's not like you wanted to do it. I know you'd never do that to me. I only yelled at you to do it, because I didn't want him to kill you." she said before muttering something under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No, what did you say?"

"It doesn't matter."

"You said something, so it does."

Clementine paused for a moment, trying to find a way to put this. "Luke, if I said that I had the radio, what do you think Carver would have done to me?"

The question caught him off guard. "Why are you asking me that?"

"Because he said you knew."

"Carver was in your dreams, wasn't he?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does, Clem! Since when do you believe anything he says?"

"So, do you know what he would have done?"

"Why do you want to know?" After no response from Clem, Luke spoke. "What else did he do to you?"

"I'll tell you, if you tell me."

Luke shook his head, he knew she'd get it out of him one way or another. "When Carver found out about our plan, he beat the shit out of me and asked where the other radio was. Long story, short, he said that if he found out you had it, he would have made you spend the night in his office with the curtains drawn."

Clementine closed her eyes, Carver almost had his hands on her. "You just about gave me a heart attack when you tried to fess up." Luke told her.

"He would have killed you." she said.

"I know… So what did he do to you?"

"It started off like any other dream, with him tying my arms above my head before talking to me. Eventually, he started rubbing my side. He does that from time to time, but this time was different… His hand slipped under my shirt."

"Did he touch you anywhere else?"

"No, his hand never left my side."

Luke paused for a moment. "Don't you have any control over your dreams? Can't you make him go away?"

"I tried… But no matter what I did, no matter how hard I imagined it, he wouldn't stop." she said. "Luke?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Can you hold me?"

Luke pushed off from the railing and turned to the little girl before pulling her closer. He felt her arms wrap his lower back as he wrapped one arm around her body while his other hand rested on her head. This was the only thing he could do for her.

"Any reason you wanted me to hold you?"

Clementine pulled herself closer to him. "I just missed you holding me before I fell asleep, it made me feel safe." After what David made them do, and since Clementine didn't want to get Luke sick, the little girl has been sleeping on the couch while Luke got the cot.

Luke smiled before he started rubbing her back. "I'll leave you out here if you fall asleep on me."

Clementine smirked. "No, you won't." Her hold tightened around his back, causing him to hiss in pain. Luke did his best to hold it in, but it slipped out. Clem released her hold on Luke after hearing it. "Are you okay, Luke?"

"I'm fine, Clem. My back is just sore, it's nothing." he said.

Luke had no time to react before Clem made her way behind him and lifted up his shirt, seeing some of the scratches on his back.

"Holy shit, did I do that?" she asked.

"It's fine, Clem." he assured.

"No, it's not. I think we have medicine for it inside." Clem grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. Luke went along with her, knowing that he wouldn't win an argument with her.

Once they were inside, Luke sat down on the couch while Clementine searched through the supplies they brought in. After finding ointment, she made her way back to Luke. She grabbed the back of Luke's shirt collar and started to pull only for him to grab her hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm taking off your shirt." she said before trying to pull it off again, but Luke stopped her.

"I don't think you need to, kid."

"Come on, it's not like I haven't seen you shirtless before."

"Never use that against me, Clem."

"I'm sorry."

Silence filled the space for a few seconds. "Alright." Luke spoke before pulling his orange shirt off again.

Clementine sat on her knees on the couch next to Luke, squeezing some ointment out of the little tube onto her hand and applying it to Luke's back. Luke winced a bit at the coldness of the cream before feeling Clem's hand lightly rub it in over his scratches.

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this." he said.

"I sort of forced you to." she told him.

"You shouldn't be, though."

"There's a lot of things I shouldn't do."

"Still, you're eleven."

"I grew up when I was nine. I kind of had to."

The conversation ended there. Clementine slowly rubbing the cream further down his back to the other scratches.

"I really messed up your back." she spoke.

"I know you didn't mean to." Luke said.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me."

"Clem."

"Sorry."

Silence came between the two. "I've never felt like shit as much as I did over the past week. I'd rather die than hurt you in any way." Luke said.

"Don't say that." Clem said.

"It's true. Honestly, I wanted to die this week because of what I did to you."

Clementine paused for a moment so she could think of what to say as she made her way to the other side of Luke's back before applying ointment on it.

"What's the most important thing in this world?" she asked him. The question surprised Luke. "What's the one thing that you, me, and I guess Carver… would walk, and practically did walk, hundreds of miles to get back?" Clementine asked.

Luke, himself, walked from the ski lodge to Howe's to get Clementine and the rest of his group back, and he knew Clem ran from one side of a city to the other to save himself from Melissa. The two knew Carver's story.

The farm boy smiled. "It's a tough world out there without people you can trust." he said finishing his own quote.

"You're all I have left, Luke. You're the only person I trust, I don't want to lose you, too."

"You know that I love you, right? Like a best friend- little sister kind of way."

"Yeah, I know. You tell me all the time."

"I don't tell you all the time, I just like to remind you." Luke said. "You love me, too, right?"

"Would I be putting medicine on your back if I didn't?" she said sarcastically. "Okay, I think I'm done." Clementine put the cap of the tube back on.

"Thanks, kid."

While Clementine put the medicine away and went outside to wash her hands with the rain, Luke put his shirt back on. His back felt better already. Clem came back inside, wiping her hands on her jeans before making her way back to Luke.

Clementine sat next to him, resting her head up against his arm. She interlocked her fingers with Luke's as her other arm wrapped around his. Luke looked down at the hand in his, her hand was so small compared to his.

"Do you know what sounds good right now?" she asked.

"What?" Luke asked.

"Caramel." Clementine said.

"Caramel? Out of all the things in the world, the one thing you want is caramel?"

"My dad used to bring me a bagful of caramel when he and my mom came back from Savannah. My mom didn't approve, saying it would rot my teeth, but my dad would always bring it back in secret and tell me to go hide it. I always hid them under my socks in the drawer. I'm pretty sure my parents knew where it was because there would always be a couple caramels missing when I came home from school." Luke could feel Clementine smile against his arm. "The last time they went, my dad gave me his hat. He said that if I kept it clean, he'd get me the biggest bag of caramel. Two of them, actually. Then-"

Luke felt her smile fade as her arm tightened around his. He knew what happened next. Her parents never came back. Luke let go of her hand to put his arm around her as his other arm scooped up her legs so he could pick her up and set her down on his lap before wrapping his arms around her tiny body.

Clementine let him hold her. She missed his warm arms around her body. Clem rested her head against his chest, while doing her best to hold in her tears. She wanted to hug her mom and dad again. She wanted to help make cookies with her mom and eat them while they watched movies. She wanted to share a caramel with her dad right before she went to bed. She wanted to eat dinner with them and talk about how their day went. She could feel the tears in her golden eyes fall, she missed her parents.

A sniff echoed throughout the room, causing Luke to hold the little girl tighter as he rocked her. After a while of rocking, he pulled her away to place a kiss on her temple. He pulled his lips away slightly before he spoke. "You're my family, Clem. Don't you ever forget that."

Clementine sniffed again. It wasn't until a couple minutes later before she started humming to calm herself down. Once she started, Luke caught on what the song was and started humming with her.

* * *

_Clementine shot up from her nightmare and looked at her surroundings to see the rest area Luke stopped at for the night._

_It was the middle of spring and the first time the two slept on the mattress in the truck bed. Clem looked over to Luke who was sleeping with his back towards her. She didn't feel like waking him up._

_She layed back down to try to get some sleep, but her dream was too busy replaying in the back of her mind. Carver paid her a visit, again. Saying that he was always with her, every minute of every day. Damn it, why did he always feel the need to haunt her._

_As if on cue, a bird flew out of no where and nearly gave her a heart attack. Clementine hid under the blanket. She was afraid that if she came out, Carver's face would be right there and he'd kidnap her. _

_From under the blanket, Clementine made her way next to Luke and hugged him. Feeling the arm around him, Luke woke up and turned over. He could feel something press against his stomach, so he lifted the blanket to see Clem look up at him._

"_What are you doing, kid?" he asked._

"_I can't sleep." she said._

_Luke took her hat off her head. "It's really hard to look at your eyes with that on your head." he said. "So you can't sleep, huh?"_

_Clementine pulled herself up to him so she didn't have to look up. "I'm kind of scared to."_

"_It's okay, kid." Luke glared to the sky. "Hey, look up."_

_The two rolled onto their backs to look up at the starry night sky. "It's beautiful." she whispered out loud._

_Luke smiled as he turned his head to the little girl. "Do you know what's more beautiful than this?"_

"_What?" Clem asked as she turned her head to him._

"_Those golden eyes of yours." he told her._

_Clementine pushed his head away. "That's not true."_

"_Have you seen your eyes, kid? They are pure gold."_

"_You're such a dork." she said as she rolled over away from him._

"_I've heard that the eyes match the heart."_

"_You made that up."_

"_Since you have golden eyes, that must mean that you have a golden heart. Which is true."_

"_So does that mean you have a brown heart?"_

"_Not exactly, Clem. A lot of women say I have warm eyes."_

"_Women, or woman?"_

"_Believe it or not, kid, but I had a few girlfriends in high school and college."_

"_And they all said you have warm eyes?"_

"_You just did."_

_Clementine turned back over to face Luke and to punch him in the arm._

_Luke chuckled a bit from her hit. "So, is it true?"_

"_Is what true?" she asked._

"_Do I have a warm heart?"_

"_If it'll get you to shut up, then yes. You have the warmest heart on the face of the Earth."_

"_Thanks, kid."_

_Even though she said yes to make him drop the subject, Clementine agrees that Luke has a warm heart. He's just warm in general. She'd always cuddle close to him when she's cold because somehow he's warm._

_The duo turned back to the stars above them. After a while Clementine, heard some humming. Since she wasn't, it had to be the guy next to her._

_She turned to him before she spoke."Luke, what are you humming?"_

"_Shit! Clem, I thought you were asleep."_

"_What were you humming?" she asked again._

"_It's a song. It's really nice and kind of fits the mood right now." he said as he rolled over to face her._

"_Can you sing it for me?"_

"_I don't know, kid."_

"_Please…" Clementine took a hold of Luke's hand._

"_Alright, but come closer. We don't need to attract something we don't want." he said._

_Clementine did as told, moving closer to him until their foreheads were practically touching. Luke pulled his hand out of Clem's hold and took a hold of her's before bringing it between them. With his thumb, he started to rub the hand underneath his._

_Luke took a deep breath before recalling the song word-for-word_

"We'll do it all,  
Everything,  
On our own,

We don't need,  
Anything,  
Or anyone,

If I lay here,  
If I just lay here,  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know,  
How to say,  
How I feel,

Those three words,  
Are said too much,  
They're not enough,

If I lay here,  
If I just lay here,  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told,  
Before we get too old  
Show me a garden that's bursting into life,

Let's waste time,  
Chasing cars,  
Around our heads,

I need your grace,  
To remind me,  
To find my own,

If I lay here,  
If I just lay here,  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told,  
Before we get too old,  
Show me a garden that's bursting into life,

All that I am,  
All that I ever was,  
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see,

I don't know where,  
Confused about how as well,  
Just know that these things will, never change for us at all,

If I lay here,  
If I just lay here,  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"_*_

_Clementine smiled when Luke finished the song causing him to smirk. "You happy?"_

"_Yeah, I am." she said. "You're right, it is a pretty song. Thank you."_

_Luke grabbed Clem's hand that was under his and brought it up to his lips. "It's okay to be a little scared." he said as he pulled her hand away, placing it in the little space between them "Just know that I'll protect you. Now let's try and get some sleep, okay?"_

_Clementine nodded before closing her eyes. One thing that was for sure, was that she'd have that song stuck in her head all day tomorrow._

* * *

_NOW ENTERING MONTANA_

"How you feeling, kid?" Luke asked.

"I haven't thrown up today, so that's good." Clementine said.

The rain finally stopped the next morning. The two, having the past settled, decided to continue to Washington. They finally passed the state line to the new state. Clementine had the window cracked open for fresh air, like Luke suggested.

Clementine felt her stomach turn. She bent over, holding her stomach. Trying her best to keep everything down. Luke looked at her, causing him to stop the truck. Once the truck stopped, Clementine opened the door on her side, throwing up everything inside her stomach. She felt Luke reach over and pat her back.

"I think you spoke too soon, Clem." he said.

"I hate being sick." she said as she pulled herself back in and closed the door.

Luke lifted his hand to her forehead. It didn't feel warm. "You feel fine to me. Maybe that can of beans we ate this morning was expired."

"What about the last few days?"

"You were actually sick."

"If the beans were expired, how come you're not puking?"

"I have a strong immune system, plus you just recovered from a cold." he said. "We're stopping at the next town."

"Luke, I'm fine."

"I don't want you to get car sick, too. Besides we need gas."

After about two hours, they finally arrived at a town and Luke pulled into a parking lot of a library. The two brought everything inside. The library was big and pretty much intact. Despite the fact they had no power, the library had lots of skylights.

The two killed a few walkers that they found inside after they threw their supplies in a small back room.

The two originally planned to stay for the night and look for more supplies in the morning before heading out, but that changed the next morning.

"Clem?" Luke called through the library.

"Over here."

Luke followed the sound of her voice to find Clementine sitting on the floor with a book in her lap.

"What are you doing, kid?"

"I'm trying to read."

"You do realize you are in the adult section, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you even know what you're reading?"

"Yes."

Luke knelt down behind her, looking over the kid's shoulder to look at what she was reading. "Clem, I don't even know half the words in this." Luke pulled the book out of her hands and put it back on the shelf. "Come on."

The older man took her hand as they both stood. Luke lead her to a more bright and colorful part of the library. The children section.

"I said that I'd teach ya how to read. Now pick out a book here, one with big words and lots of pictures."

"I'm not five, Luke."

"Just pick out a book and meet me on the couch."

Luke made his way over to the couch after sending the kid away. He sat down with his back up against the armrest. Clementine came back with a book in hand. She sat on top of Luke's lap, leaning up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her body as she opened the book.

"So how are you going to teach me?" she asked.

"Well, I was hoping that you could read what you know and if you're having trouble, I can help you." he said.

"Okay."

With that said, Clementine started to read a book she found. She had a little trouble reading the title, but she managed to do it. Luke's mom read the same book to him when he was a kid, and he eventually read it by himself because he loved it so much. _Where The Wild Things Are._

He had to help her with a few words here and there, but she was doing pretty well, despite stumbling a little bit on most of the sentences. It wasn't until about halfway through the story when he grew tired. After Clementine finished reading, she looked up at Luke to see him fast asleep. She smirked before setting the book down on the floor and leaning her head back on his chest. She tilted the bill of her hat up before kissing his cheek, causing his arms to tighten around her. It was her thank you for helping her learn how to read, even though he fell asleep during it. With that thought she rested her arms on top of his and fell asleep.

* * *

"No… she can't be…"

Clementine heard Luke mutter from one bookshelf over. She was looking for him so they can go look for more supplies.

"Luke, are you ready?" she asked as she made her way around the bookshelf.

"Clem!" Luke quickly closed the book he was reading and hid it behind his back.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"It's… an adult book." he said.

Although she was still curious about it, she shrugged it off. "So are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking that, you know, maybe you should stay here." he said.

"No, I'm not letting you go alone."

"All of our stuff is here. If we both leave, someone might take it. I need you to stay here."

"We can put it all in the truck."

"We can't do that either, someone could break in, steal the supplies _and_ the truck. Look, I'm only going a few blocks away. I'll be back before you know it." Luke tilted her hat down before putting the book he was holding on top of the bookshelf, completely out of Clementine's reach.

He walked off heading towards the back room with all the supplies. Clem followed him after fixing her hat. Once in the small room, Luke grabbed a backpack and put it on. Clementine tried to convince him to let her go with him, but he used the same excuses.

"What if we locked the back room?" she asked.

"Clem, you're not coming with me." he said as he made his way to the front door. The little girl following him.

"Why not?"

"Because I want you to stay here."

"Why?"

Luke turned around to look at her. "Because you're-" he cut himself off. "You're trustworthy enough for me to leave you alone and keep everything safe. I'll turn back the second it get's hairy, okay?"

Clementine hugged him. Luke wrapped his arms around her. To be honest, Luke didn't want to leave her alone. But it was for her safety that she stayed put. She needed to. And he needed to think about things that recently happened. As much as he wanted to discuss it with Clementine, she wouldn't understand.

When the hug ended, the two said their goodbyes and Luke went on his way.

* * *

"Clem, I'm back." Luke called as he walked in the library.

In the corner of his eye he could see the children section and a little girl set down the book in her lap before running up to him.

"What did you get?" she asked.

Luke set the backpack down on the table and opened it up. "I was able to raid some of what was left in a pharmacy."

Luke pulled out a couple cans of food, one of them slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. As he bent down to pick it up, Clementine searched through what else Luke got. She found a box and pulled it out. It wasn't food and she couldn't read what it said.

"Luke, what's this?" she asked.

Luke stood up and placed the can he picked up on the table. He took the box out of Clem's hand and put it back in the backpack. "I'm really glad you can barely read." he said aloud.

"Luke?" Clementine was getting worried.

"You might want to sit down, Clem." he said.

Clementine glanced behind her and pulled a chair out from under the table to sit on it. After she did, Luke knelt down in front of her, taking a hold of her hands before looking at her.

"Kid, I think you might be pregnant."

* * *

**A/N: Please don't kill me! Anyway I hope you enjoyed and please review, favorite, follow, and all of that stuff. Bye!**

***- Chasing cars by Snow Patrol.**


	6. Abigail

**A/N: Here you go, new chapter. I must say, some of you reviewers made me feel guilty about putting this thing in the chapter. But I might write a separate story just for the ones who wanted it, because I did think of something for it. What is this I've put instead of the thing? Read the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game.**

It Just Happened

Daisyfan5534

Chapter 6

* * *

"Wh- what?" Clem was speechless. "What do you mean I'm pregnant? How am I pregnant?" she looked down at her stomach.

"Look, I'm not sure if you are, but you've been puking, sleeping more than usual, and you had a craving for caramel a few days ago. I just need to know."

"What does all that have to do with anything?"

"Those are the few signs of pregnancy."

"How did this happen?" she asked.

Luke stood up. "God, I hate that you're only eleven." he said. "Look I'll explain when you're older, but for right now, we should find out if you are or not."

"Is that what the box was for?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"What if I'm not pregnant?"

"Then you probably were sick."

"What if I am?"

The farm boy paused. "I don't know."

* * *

Luke zipped up the backpack before slipping it on and leaving the house he scavenged through. Clementine was back at the library while he went out to look for more supplies.

It's been three days since he brought up the fact that she might be pregnant, and they were both still unsure on if she is or not. When he raided the pharmacy on his last run, he picked up two pregnancy tests. One test resulted in a negative, the other was positive.

She shouldn't have to go through this at her age. She's too young to worry about things like this, or to experience this. He promised her that he'd figure out something if she was, and Luke had no clue on what to do.

This was the fifth house he searched through, Luke was going to look through one more house before heading back to the library. With his machete in hand, he opened the door of the next house down. He stepped inside, listening carefully for any lurkers in the home.

After a few steps inside, he heard something behind him.

"Put down your weapon." a voice spoke from behind.

Luke assumed she had a gun pointed at him. She. It was a girl. He did as he asked, slowly bringing the machete down to the ground and standing back up.

"Hands on your head." he did as she asked, noticing her voice had a similar accent to his, but it was mixed with another. "You got any other weapons on ya?"

"No. Listen I have food in my backpack, you can take what you want. No need for anyone to die, here."

The woman behind him paused for a moment. "Luke?"

The farm boy turned around, taking the hands off his head. If she knew him, then she could be safe. In front of him was a woman his age, very dark, brown hair, blue eyes.

"Abigail?"

"Holy shit!" she walked towards Luke, embracing him with a quick hug. He accepted it, the last time he saw her was high school.

The hug broke before Luke spoke. "Not the high school reunion I was hoping for, but it's a good one."

"You can say that again. It's great to see a familiar face." Abigail said.

Memories came back on their relationship. Abigail was one of the girls Luke dated back in high school. They were together for almost five months during their junior year. After they broke it off, the two drifted apart. Only talking to each other when their teacher made them to talk about what they read or when they got assigned to group projects.

"So did you get that art history major?"

"Yeah, I did. What about you wanting to become a doctor?"

"I got a scholarship to a college in Colorado. I was still in college when all of this started. I didn't want to do mid-terms, then I saw lurkers walking around my campus."

"You didn't wish for all of this, so you didn't have to take any tests, did you?"

"No, I wished that I could clone myself and the clone could take the test, while I got some well-deserved sleep."

"We all wished that. So what happened to you?"

"I was with about fifteen other people from my college. One professor, the others were all students. We tried to study the lurkers. Found out a few things here and there, but then the professor got bit and we couldn't stop the infection by cutting off the bite."

"So cutting off the bite really does work?"

"Depends on when you cut it. If it's right away and you take care of it, then you should be fine. It also depends on where the bite is. Arms and legs are disposable if cut off on time. If it's the side, you can try to cut around it, but it only slows the infection down by a day or two. If it's the neck, like my professor, then you are done for."

"How the hell do you know all that?"

"Everyone in my group were doctors in training or taught it. With a little bit of research, couple of saved victims, and educated guesses, we got all of this information."

"Well, it's good to know for the future."

"Yeah, anyway the group sort of split and we went our own ways. Eventually, I found a group and they accepted me. I fell in love, then she-"

"She?"

"Oh yeah, I'm a lesbian."

"Is that why you broke up with me?"

"Don't worry, farm boy. I became a lesbian after my first year of college. I broke up with you because I got a bad grade on one test, it brought my grade down and my mom almost killed me and thought you were to blame. It was either I broke up with you, or I got grounded."

"Your mom hated me."

"I know."

"So what happened with your girlfriend?"

"She got bit in the side. I tried to cut it out and bandaged it best I could when I did. I had almost two days with her. I'm sure you can figure out the rest. I left the group a week later and started going around the U.S. doing what I do now."

"What do you do now?"

"I trade medical care for what I needed. I have plenty of medical supplies, not much of anything else."

"So, you're on your own?"

"Yeah, pretty much. What about you? What have you been doing ever since this started?"

"Well, from when all of this started, I… Wait, you give medical care for supplies?" Luke asked.

"I believe that's what I said." Abigail responded.

"Oh thank god! I need your help!" he said.

"Luke, calm down. I'll help you, but you still have to tell me your story."

"Alright, but it's not me who needs to be looked at."

"Okay, then take me to your group. You can explain on the way."

With that said, Abigail grabbed her medical supplies before the two made their way back to the library.

"So, your story?"

"Well, I was with Nick, his mom, and his uncle. After realizing what was happening, we tried to get my folks, but we were too late. They were already lurkers."

"I'm sorry, Luke."

"It's fine. The four of us traveled for a while before we stumbled across this guy. His name was William Carver, usually referred to as Bill, or just Carver. He had this 'community' at a hardware store. It was well protected, had food, water. We decided to stay." He explained. "Flash forward a few years, and we tried to take care of a bite victim, but she turned and Nick's mom was gone. Carver and I got into arguments on how we should run the place, but he never listened. Next thing I knew, Carver started losing it. It was then we decided to escape. And we did, with a few other people who thought the same as we did."

"It must have been hard to get out."

"Hell yeah it was. Anyway the group and I found a cabin to stay in, but I'm pretty sure Carver got this woman in our group pregnant, so he was looking for us." Luke said. "A few weeks later while Pete and I were hunting, we found a little girl in the woods. She was bit by a dog, but no one in our group believed that it was. So we locked her in a shed. The kid broke out, stole from us, then stitched up her own arm. Right after she was done, a lurker broke into the shed. By the time we opened the door, we saw the lurker impaled by an anchor and a hammer in it's head."

"Wait, you're telling me that a little girl fought off a walker by herself?"

"Yep, and she comes out saying 'Still. Not. Bitten.' We let her in afterwards. The next day Carver found us so we all hightailed it to the mountains. Ran into more people, but Carver tracked us and kidnapped us. We soon escaped, killing Carver in the process, and we gained more people in our group and we lost some. The pregnant woman gave birth but died soon afterward. The current group was ambushed by a Russian group, all of the Russians died except one. He took us to this place where we found a truck. The Russian guy kind if lost it after being beaten and harassed by one of our group members. Shot everyone, including the baby, in our group. I was able to kill him. The girl was lucky to get shot in the shoulder. So I grabbed her and the rest of our supplies, and piled them into a working truck and drove away. It's been the two of us ever since… minus a couple incidents."

"So what's wrong with the girl? If it's just you two, and you're fine. Then what's wrong with her?"

Luke stayed silent for a moment, trying to find a way to put Clem's condition. "One of the incidences we ran into resulted in… a possibility that she's… pregnant."

"Pregnant? How old is this girl?" Abigail asked in shock.

"She's eleven, almost twelve." he told her.

"What kind of sick asshole rapes a kid?" she said.

"That sick asshole would be me." he guiltily said.

Abigail stopped in her tracks. Once Luke noticed, he turned around to face her. She pulled her gun out, but didn't aim it at him. "You better have an explanation on why you raped a little girl."

"What? Do you think I actually enjoyed it? The two of us ran into a guy, said that his uncle owned a radio station that should have supplies. We trusted him and went there. He separated us, used her as bait so he could knock me unconscious before locking the two of us in a soundbooth. Long story short, he pointed a gun at us and told us to do it. If not, he would have killed me before raping and killing her."

Abigail stared at him for a moment, trying to see if he's telling the truth.

"Abby, in any other circumstance, I would ask you to shoot me for hurting her like that, but I need to get back to her and make sure she's alright. Please…"

After a few seconds, she slowly started to nod, putting her gun away. "Alright, I believe you." Abigail said before catching up to him. "So, why do you think she's pregnant?"

"It was only a few days after the incident when she started throwing up and sleeping a lot more than usual. I thought she was sick because of the season change, but it lasted. After we came here, we held out in a library. There I found a book on diseases to see if I could help her, but it said that some people might throw up because they're pregnant. That lead me to another book on pregnancy. On the last supply run I went on, I found a couple pregnancy tests. After talking to her about it, she took the tests. One was positive and one was negative."

"Damn."

"I hear ya."

* * *

"Clem?" Luke called as he entered the library, with Abigail right behind him.

Luke looked over to the children section to see the little girl curled up on the couch, asleep. He made his way over to her and knelt down in front of the kid. Luke lightly shook her awake.

"Hey, kid. Wake up." he softly said.

Clementine shifted before peeling her eyes open. "Shit, I'm sorry." she spoke as she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"It's okay, Clem." Luke said as he rubbed her arm. "I ran into someone."

Clementine watched Luke stand up and step aside to see a blue-eyed, brunette woman behind him.

"Clem, this is Abigail. Abby, Clementine." Luke introduced the two.

Abigail stuck her hand out to the little girl and Clementine shook it. She was worried that this would turn into another Melissa thing.

"Abigail's an old friend of mine and a doctor. She's going to help us."

Clem nodded. "Okay." Maybe this wouldn't turn into a Melissa thing.

While Abigail and Clementine went into a back room for the kid's check up, Luke walked around the library. He was worried about Clem. He was afraid that he got her pregnant. And if he did, what were they going to do? Clementine's already been through so much, the last thing she needs right now is to carry around a baby.

In the back room, Abigail asked Clem to sit on a table.

"Now, I'm just letting you know that we're both girls here, so there is nothing to hide." Abby said before setting her bag down in a chair.

After a while of silence Clementine decided to break the ice. "So… How do you know Luke?"

"We dated in high school." Abigail responded.

"What was he like in high school?" Clem asked.

"Well, imagine Luke as the most attractive person ever, and take away all the women chasing after him. Come to think of it, there were a lot of guys better looking than him. But Luke would always have the hearts of one or two girls. He always knew how to talk to females and he's just a big softy."

Clementine chuckled at that. "So why'd you two break up?"

"It's complicated."

"Do you still like him?"

"No. I fell out of love with guys and fell in love with girls, if you know what I mean."

Maybe this won't end up like Melissa.

"You don't think it's weird, do you?" Abigail asked.

"A little bit, but it doesn't bug me. I met two guys who were partners, and I don't think it's bad."

"Good. Can you lay down for me?"

Clementine did as she asked. Once she was laying down on the table, Abigail asked if she could take a look at her stomach. Clementine lifted up her shirt to reveal it.

"So how long have you been with Luke?" Abigail asked.

"Almost a year." Clementine responded.

"He treat you well?"

"Yeah, he takes care of me. I probably wouldn't be here without him."

"You like him?"

"He's my best friend, of course I do. He sometimes goes into an older brother mode and won't let me out of his sight."

"Why do you think I broke up with him?"

The two shared a smile before starting the check up.

* * *

"Luke?" Abigail called.

The farm boy felt his heart drop once his name was called. This was it. He was finally going to get answers. Luke walked into the back room to see Clementine sitting on the table looking down at her dangling feet, one of them shaking anxiously, wanting to know the news too. Luke leaned up against the table next to where she was sitting, taking a hold of her hand.

"Well…" Abigail started. Luke and Clementine looked at her, waiting for what she had to say. "I looked at her, and from what I can tell… I can verify that you are, in fact, pregnant, Clementine."

No, this isn't happening. Clem's too young to go through this.

"Are you sure?" Luke asked.

"Yeah." Abby said.

Clementine looked down at her stomach and bit down on her lip. She didn't know what to do. What were they going to do?

"Luke? What's going to happen now?" she asked as she looked up at him.

He didn't have an answer. He didn't know what to do. How was Luke supposed to take care of a pregnant child. She's a fucking kid. That baby could kill her. Luke looked up at Abigail, wanting an answer from her.

"At this point in the pregnancy, there are a few things you can do." Abigail spoke up.

"Like what?" Clem asked.

"One option is to have the baby. Another is to hope for a miscarriage, or…" Abigail trailed off. "Have an abortion."

"An abortion?" Luke asked. "How the hell do you have an abortion with the dead walking around outside?"

"What's an abortion?" Clementine asked.

Luke paused for a moment before he spoke. "An abortion is a way to stop the pregnancy."

"It basically destroys the baby that's currently forming inside of you, and you won't be pregnant anymore." Abigail explained. "And to have an abortion in this day and age, you'd need a pill. Fortunately I have one."

"So all she has to do is take the pill?" Luke asked.

"Well it's up to her on what she wants to do."

All of the eyes were now on her. This was her decision. Clementine thought about the option of having the kid. They had no baby formula, but doesn't mean they can find some. Still, she had to give birth to it. And from hearing Rebecca's screams, it must be painful, especially at her own age.

"I don't care what you chose, Clem. But you do what you think is best, I'll be here for every step of the way." Luke said.

"You must keep in mind, that a girl your age shouldn't have to go through things like this. So having the baby could result in something you don't want." Abby said.

Clementine knew what she meant, having AJ eventually killed Rebecca. Even if it wasn't cold out, the same thing could have happened. She could die, the baby could die. The baby could even die with her. Luke would be devastated.

Clem took a deep breath before she spoke. "I want the pill."

Luke rubbed her back in remorse. This must be extremely hard for her to do.

"You sure about this, Clem?" Abigail asked.

"Yeah, it's the right choice." she responded.

"Okay." Abigail reached into her bag and pulled out a pill bottle. She opened it and dumped out the last pill in the container in her hand. Abby grabbed a water bottle and walked over to the little girl.

She held them out to her. Clementine stared at them for a second before taking them in her hands. She could turn back at any moment, she didn't have to do this. Clem closed her fingers around the pill as she opened the lid to the water bottle, setting the cap down beside her.

Clementine closed her eyes tightly before she quickly put the pill in her mouth and drank some water to swallow it. She could feel it go down her throat. That was it. No going back.

She breathed deeply as Clem put the cap back on the water bottle. She slightly warmed up to Luke's hand rubbing her back.

"You okay?" he asked.

Clementine didn't feel like talking, so she just nodded.

"You want to be alone for a bit?"

Clem nodded again.

With that gesture, Luke and Abigail left the room, leaving the girl to think. Once outside the room Luke walked against the wall, away from the back room. When he was far enough, he slammed his palm against the wall before running his hand through his hair. Did this really just happen? Did an eleven-year-old child have an abortion?

"Luke?" Abigail called from behind him.

He was pissed. He fucking put Clementine through all of this shit.

"I get that you're mad at yourself, Luke, and now is a perfect time to vent. So do it." Abby said.

"Why is everything so fucked up?" he asked.

"Not everything is fucked up." she responded. "You still have a surviving little girl with you."

"That little girl will never be the same again."

"Maybe so, but with time, she might be."

"It doesn't change what I did to her."

"Neither does your love for her. I can tell that you care about her a lot, and she told me that you did. Luke, what you need now, is some well-deserved rest."

She was right, Luke was exhausted. Ever since he found out that Clem might be pregnant, he hardly got any sleep. His mind was off worrying about the little girl.

"You go take a nap and I'll be here until she comes out or you wake up." she said.

"Thank you." Luke responded before finding a couch to lay down on before he shut his eyes.

* * *

Everyone needs a good rest, Luke needed it more than anyone. He never felt so good after waking up. Minus the fact that his best friend went through things he wish he could take back.

Luke stood up to stretch before looking for Abigail. He found her standing by the entrance, completely lost in thought.

"Abby?"

The woman jumped out of her thoughts before turning to him. "Hey, you're up."

"Yeah, how long have I been out?" he asked.

"A few hours, it's about sunset." she responded.

"Where's Clementine?"

"She's still in the room."

"Are you planning on leaving?"

"No, I need to stay here and make sure she's reacting okay to the medication, besides I have to give her a different pill to finish the abortion. After that's done, I might leave."

"Thank you for doing this. It means a lot."

"I wouldn't have let her have the baby. Even if she wanted to, I would have snuck the pill in her food or something. She's just too young."

"I know. I don't know what I would have done if she died giving birth."

"Why don't you go check on her? She probably needs some comfort."

Luke nodded before walking off to the back room.

The walk seemed like it took forever but he finally got to the door. Luke looked through the narrow window to see Clementine laying down on the floor in the middle of the slightly dark room staring up at the ceiling.

The older man opened the door before sliding in the room. Clementine didn't say anything, she didn't even move. Luke shut the door behind him before laying down next to her in the opposite direction but making sure to have his head next to hers. He turned his head to look at the little girl, she just kept staring at the ceiling. Luke turned back to the ceiling as well.

After about five minutes a voice broke the silence between. "Are you trying to forget the world with me?"

Luke smirked. "Something like that." he said. "How ya feeling, kid?"

"Like a part of me just died." she responded.

"That's probably one of the last pieces of innocence left in ya." he said.

The little girl paused for a moment. "You don't need to tell me that you're sorry." Clementine said. "I know that you are."

"I still need to say it." he said. "I'm sorry, Clem. I'm sorry you had to go through all this shit."

"It's not your fault. You couldn't do anything."

"You hate me, don't you?"

"What?"

"Just admit it. I know you hate me. I do."

"I could never hate you."

"How do you not hate me?"

"Because I love you." Clem said. "You know what I mean, Luke. You care about me, you look after me, you hold me when I'm scared. Lee was the last person to ever do that to me. Before you, I'd tell him that I loved him."

"I must be that important to you then."

"You are. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

"Same here."

"If you could, I know you'd take it all back."

"I'd do anything to take it all back."

"Can we start to forget about it?"

"Of course, kid. And Clem?"

"What?"

"I love you, too." Luke told her. "You know what I mean."

* * *

It's been a few days since the abortion and Luke and Clementine were slowly getting their relationship back together. Currently, the two have been working on that by Luke helping Clem on her reading. Everyday, they would read three or four books together. Clementine was actually doing pretty good, despite that she stutters a bit and needs help with words she can't read. That's what Luke was there for anyway.

Abigail was still around, making sure Clementine was doing alright and giving her the other medication for her abortion. The kid was sort of warming up to her, and Luke was comfortable around her. He just wanted to make sure Clem was okay.

So Clem and Luke were in the middle of a book in the kiddie section of the library. Abigail was looking for them, Luke in particular. She had to talk to him. Once she found him with the little girl, she called him over to talk to him in private. Clementine let him go while she kept practicing.

"How's the relationship going?" Abigail asked.

"We're rebuilding. So why'd you call me over?" Luke asked.

"I was wondering when or if you two plan on leaving?" she asked.

"I haven't talked to Clementine about that yet, but I hope to leave in the next day or two." he responded.

"Okay. One more thing, do you mind if I tag along?"

"You want to come with us?"

"Yeah…" Abigail scratched the back of her head, almost embarrassed that she asked this. "I just want to make sure she's doing okay."

"Abby, I know you mean well, and I kind of want you to come with us, but I'm not sure if Clementine will be okay with it. The last time we had another female in out group, it ended badly."

"And is that female part of the reason that you're not fully okay with me joining?"

"You'd be correct."

"Hate to break it to ya, Luke. But your little girl is getting older. Say I don't come, and next week Clem starts asking you on why she's bleeding down in her area."

"Bleeding in her area? What are you… Ah, shit."

"That kid's going to need a female figure in her life sooner or later. Mainly for these reasons."

"Alright, you can come, but you're still need to talk to Clementine."

"Oh, I already did. We chatted yesterday about me coming along, surprisingly, she wanted me to. I haven't talked to her about girl things yet, but when we leave, can we stop at a clothing store? I'd love to get that kid a training bra."

"Uh…"

"I'll take that as a yes. Thanks, Luke."

With that said, Abigail left him standing there as she made her way over to Clementine. Abby sat down next to the kid before talking to her. Luke was too far to hear what they were talking about. He assumed that she was helping Clem read, but she closed the book. Luke wandered off to check on their supplies, leaving the girls to whatever they were talking about. Maybe having Abigail come with them was a good thing. For once, Luke can trust someone to be alone with Clementine.

* * *

The duo became a trio when Clementine and Luke let Abigail join their group. Luke did what Abby asked, by stopping at a clothing store before leaving the town they were in. Clementine and Abby were in the store for about an hour while Luke was in the truck waiting for them. In that hour, he had time to reflect.

In about half a month, Clementine has grown so much. In her mental state, not so much her physical state. She experienced sex, got pregnant, and had an abortion. Stuff you don't go through until you're at least an adult, not counting teenagers. Now Clem is with an older woman getting a training bra and to discuss woman things. Things done at around her age. She's eleven.

The fact that he practically caused the adult things on the kid made it worse. He's never going to live it down. How is he supposed to, when he sees Clementine everyday? Poor kid. Scarred for life.

After the girls came out, the three continued on their way to Washington. Every night they would stop at a house to sleep in because the truck wasn't big enough for three and it was getting too cold to sleep in the truck bed.

A week flew by fast. Currently, Luke was driving, Abigail was sitting in the passenger's side, and Clementine was asleep in the backseat. She passed out listening to 'Heart-Shaped Box' about ten minutes ago.

Abigail turned her head to look at the sleeping kid for what seemed like the hundredth time. "She's out." she said.

"I figured." Luke said.

"How so?"

"I'm looking through the rearview mirror. Either she turned invisible or she's laying down."

"You two doing okay?"

"Yeah."

"How about you?"

"I'm doing fine."

"No, you're not."

"How do you know?"

"Luke, I've dated you for what? Five months? I know pretty much everything about you. And by the tone of your voice, you're not fine."

"It's been years since high school, things change."

"What's eating you?"

Luke paused for a moment before speaking. "Abby, take a look a Clementine. What do you see?"

The woman looked at the kid again. "A sleeping child."

"Abby, I'm serious."

She took one last look at Clementine before turning back to the front. "I see a growing little girl, who was thrown into a world that she shouldn't be in."

Luke took in what she said. "That's how I see her now." he paused. "Before we did it, I saw this amazing woman trapped in a child's body, who wasn't afraid to look fear in the eye. Every now and then, she'd need help because she's a child, but she's still fighting. Now I can't even look at her without hating myself."

"You shouldn't hold it against yourself. It's not good for you."

"I don't care. I deserve it."

"As much as you want to believe that there was something you could have done, there wasn't anything you could do. One of you, or even both of you, could have ended up dead."

"That doesn't change a thing."

Abigail thought for a moment before opening her mouth again. "Luke, I want you to listen and listen carefully. There are just some things in life that are hard to explain why they happened, or even why we do them. The best thing to do is to just hope it plays out in your favor. If not, then try to figure out a way." she said. Luke didn't say anything, he just took the words in. "I know you're trying to figure out answers to why all of this shit had to happen, but there is only one answer that you probably haven't thought of."

"What is it then?" he asked.

"It just happened." she said. "I'm sure Clementine would agree with me."

"How is it that you always have the best advice?"

"How is it that you always know how to talk to girls?"

"I had lots of practice."

"What? The cute, farm boy gets rejected by women?" Abigail asked sarcastically.

"Okay, I'll admit that I have been rejected by a few women." Luke confessed.

"A few?"

Luke let the silence sink in for a bit. "Okay, a lot of women."

"Yep, that's what I thought."

"Still, how are you great at giving advice?" Luke asked.

"I don't know, I just am." Abigail said.

"Well, thank you." Luke said.

Silence filled the truck once again. Abigail looked back at Clementine who was still fast asleep.

"Did you use your old pick-up lines on her, too?" she asked him.

"A few times, yeah." he responded.

"I figured you did. Which ones did you use on her?"

"They were mostly about her eyes. I've even used the thing you told me about the eyes matching the soul."

"No wonder she loves you."

"What?"

"She told me about the stuff you did for her. What you did to make her feel special."

"She is special."

"And you always tell her how special she is. You don't say she's special, you say what's special about her. Her eyes, her smile, how brave she is. And you tell her these things because you love her, too." Abigail said. "And by love, I mean platonically. For the both of you."

"Thanks, Abby." Luke said.

"For what?" she asked.

"For being great with words." he said.

"You're welcome." Abigail looked at the sky. "Sunset is probably in about an hour. We should find a house."

"Okay, I'll pull off the highway soon." Luke responded.

After fifteen minutes Luke drove into a town and found a house. He parked in front of the it. Abigail woke up Clementine before all three of them got out.

They heard moaning. The three turned around to see walkers roaming towards them. They must have followed the truck. The two adults grabbed the supplies from the backseat before they all hightailed it inside. Clementine slammed the door shut before locking it and helping Abigail and Luke move a couch in front of the door. The three backed up from the door slowly.

"You think we're safe?" Abigail asked out loud.

"Yeah… Yeah, I think we're- Shit!"

A walker came out of the shadows, attacking Luke, sending them both to the floor.

"Luke!" Clem and Abigail exclaimed before they both pulled out their guns and shot the walker in the head.

Once the walker was dead, Luke pushed the corpse off of him before standing. "Thanks, girls."

"That was real loud." Abigail said.

"Yeah… Yeah it was." Luke said, catching his breath.

"No, it was loud." Abigail said again.

Clementine ran to the nearest window, which was right by the kitchen next to the door. She pulled down some of the blinds covering the window before looking outside. "They're coming towards the house!"

"What?" the adults exclaimed.

"The walkers, there's a lot of them! They're all coming- Ah!"

Clementine was cut off by a hand pulling on her ankle, tripping her. She rolled over onto her back in terror as a walker emerge from the kitchen, trying to bite her. She tried to kick the hand off, but it climbed on top of her. Her arms were the only thing keeping it at bay.

Just when her arms were about to give, a blade sliced the walkers head in half, killing it. Luke pulled the body off the little girl before putting the machete back in his holder and extending his hand out to her to help her up.

Clementine gladly accepted it as he pulled her up.

"Kind of like how we met how we met. Huh, kid." Luke said.

Clem forced a small smile before she and the adults heard growling inside the house. Two more crawled out of the kitchen, causing the Luke and Clementine to back up. More walkers emerged from the halls and living room, forcing Abigail to back up as well until the three had their backs up against each other.

Luke pulled out his machete again, Clementine pulled out her icepick, and Abigail flipped her gun to use the butt of it as a weapon. They couldn't make a lot of noise, otherwise they'd draw more of them.

"How are there so many?" Abby asked.

Clementine looked to the back of the house to see the sliding back door open. The backyard was fenced, there must be a gate open or something. Clem shoved the icepick in Abby's hand before making a break for the backyard.

"Clem?" Luke called, seeing her run outside before killing a walker.

The first thing Clementine saw when she got outside was a pool, a shed in the back corner of the yard, and about four walkers who haven't noticed her yet. She hightailed it to the shed to find a weapon.

Clem yanked the shed door open and went inside. Growling was coming from behind, she had to hurry. Her eyes darted around the shed until they made contact with a toolbox on the floor. Clementine quickly unhooked the latches and practically ripped the box open. Her hands wrapped around the first tool she saw before turning back around. The walker stumbled into the shed, only for Clem to kick it in the knee, sending it down before slamming her weapon in it's head. It was a hammer.

After it was dead, the little girl tried to pull it out, only to find that it was stuck. Clementine gave it a good pull and managed to get her hammer free, but sending her backwards, hitting her head on the workbench.

She took a minute for the pain to subside before getting up and rush out of the shed. There were more walkers in the backyard, and she saw that they were getting in by an open gate on the side of the house. She ran towards the gate, shoving every walker in her way to the ground for the moment. Clem slammed the gate closed on the group of walkers trying to get in.

Now that Clementine stopped more from getting in, she had to help Luke and Abigail kill the rest. The little girl started killing the ones in the back yard. Most of the walkers that got in, went inside through the sliding door. Clem started killing the remaining walkers that had their attention focused on her, avoiding the pool the best she could.

The last walker she killed had the hammer stuck in it's head really good. Clem pulled as hard as she could and it wouldn't come free. She had to help Luke and Abigail, they were still dealing with a handful of walkers.

Clementine placed her foot on the corpse and yanked the hammer out, causing her to stumble backwards and trip over a corpse and send her into the pool.

The hammer slipped out of her hand and sunk to the bottom, landing on a net. Clem swam down to get it. She grabbed her hammer, lifting up some of the net in the process. Clementine didn't think much of it until she used her legs to push up from the bottom and her foot got caught in it. She kicked her leg to try and get her foot free, but ended up getting her other foot caught.

Clementine widened her eyes before she started squirming, trying to get the herself untangled. As she squirmed, she got even more tangled in the net, pulling her down. She tried to use her hammer to see if she could cut herself free, but it slipped out of her hands after a few hits. Clementine didn't care anymore, she just had to get to the surface. She started kicking, trying to get the net off her legs so she could swim up. The net tightened around her legs to the point where they were just tied together. Clem squirmed against the net, only for it to shift up her body. Once the net got to her waist she started to pull it off of her with her hands, until one of her hands got caught. The more she tried to pull her arm free the further up her body the net went and the tightened around her, pulling her down even more.

Clementine gave up on trying to get the net off of her, she just used her last free arm to try and swim up to the surface, hoping the net would untangle itself. She couldn't die like this. The net continued to make its way up her small body, tightening the more she fought against it.

She needed oxygen, she didn't know how much longer she could hold her breath. Clementine couldn't take it any more, but she had too. Then against her will, she sucked in water. Her vision started to fade as her body shut down. She watched as the net continued to consume her, it going over her head, engulfing her last free arm before everything turned black.

* * *

Abigail glanced at the pool before kicking an oncoming walker in the knee, and again before shoving Clem's icepick in the back of the walker's head. She saw Clem fall in and she hasn't come up yet. The kid's been under there for a while. Abigail ripped the weapon out before looking at the pool again.

"Abby!" Luke called.

Abigail couldn't fully turn around before teeth sunk into her shoulder. She screamed in pain as the icepick fell from her hand.

Luke killed the last walker he was fighting once he heard her scream. He used his machete to kill the one that bit his old friend. Abigail collapsed to the floor, holding her bitten shoulder.

"Clem- Clementine…" she stuttered quietly as Luke laid her down. He didn't hear what she said.

"Abby, do you think we can cut it out?" Luke asked.

"Pool… Clem hasn't…" Abby spoke louder.

Luke pulled his head up to look outside to the pool.

"Save her…" Abigail whispered.

Luke looked down at the woman before running outside. He stopped at the edge of the pool and looked in the water, seeing a little girl underneath. She wasn't moving.

He jumped in the water. Once the bubbles cleared, Luke saw Clementine tangled in a net. One arm up with the net loosely surrounding it and her head, while the rest of her body was tightly wrapped by the net. Her other arm was pinned down to her body and her legs were tied together. Her eyes were closed, her mouth hung open a tiny bit.

Luke quickly swam over to her before he started pulling on the net, trying to free her. While doing so, part of the net wrapped around one of his ankles. No, he wouldn't let this happen to the both of them. The farm boy pulled out his machete and swung at the net keeping them underwater. Once he and Clem were free, Luke grabbed the tied-up kid and swam to the surface.

Luke pulled himself out of the water, Clementine over his shoulder. He softly laid her down on the concrete, pulling some of the net off of her face. He cupped her cheek, seeing if she would wake up. She didn't move. Luke immediately placed one hand on top of the other, pressing down on her chest. Again, and again.

"Come on, Clem." he muttered. "Please, Clem, don't do this to me." he said louder.

Luke stopped giving her CPR to tilt her head back, opening her mouth a bit more. He took a breath before breathing it into her. This little girl wasn't going to die today, Luke didn't want that to happen. He didn't want her to turn. She couldn't.

The farm boy gave mouth-to mouth once more, before he gave her CPR again. "Clementine, please." he begged. "I'll do what you want."

Press.

"I'll sing for ya."

Press.

"I'll eat the last of the beans."

Press.

"I'll do anything you want, just don't do this to me. Clementine, I'm begging you, please don't leave me."

Luke kept pressing down on her chest, waiting for her to wake up. He gave her mouth-to-mouth again, to see if it made a change before continuing to press on her chest.

Clementine choked up water. Her lungs desperate for air. He saved her.

"Clem, look at me." he said before cupping her cheek.

The little girl opened her sore eyes slightly at the man who saved her.

"Oh, thank god!" he said pulling her up slightly to hug her. Luke gently set her back down, wiping her wet face afterwards.

"Luke…" she cried. "It hurts." she said pulling against the net.

"I know, kid. I know." he said before picking her up bridal style and carry her inside.

Clem winced in pain from the net digging into her skin through her soaked clothes.

Once inside, Luke set her down on the floor before shutting the sliding door, locking it. He quickly made his way to the kitchen opening drawers looking for a pair of scissors to cut the net. Luke found a pair before making his way back to the little girl. He knelt down in front of her as he pulled some of the net wrapped around her arm away from her body so he could cut it.

One snip at a time, Luke cut Clementine loose from the net holding her captive. Once she was free, Luke helped her stand so she could get the feeling back in her legs. It wasn't a second after that when the two made their way over to Abigail. The two knelt down in front of her. Abby weakly raised her hand to grab Clementine's. "I'm sorry, sweetie." she whispered to the little girl.

Why Abigail? The one who helped Clem and Luke through the whole pregnancy thing. Why did she have to get bit? She didn't deserve it.

"You remember everything I said to you, okay?" Abigail said to Clementine.

The eleven-year-old nodded. Abigail was like a sister, Clem didn't want to say goodbye.

Abigail pulled the icepick out and gave it back to Clementine. "I guess this is it…" Abby spoke before trying to stand up. Luke had to help her.

Once she was on her feet, Clem and Luke hugged their friend. It was Abby's last one, they had to make it count. After it broke, Abigail pulled out her gun. "I'm going to run as far as I can, so I can draw them away from here." With that said, the woman made her way towards the door. Clementine and Luke had to move the couch blocking it so she could leave. Right before she opened the door, Abigail turned to Luke. "You take good care of her."

"Of course." he responded.

Abby gave a nod before unlocking the door and opening it. After she did, she quickly locked the door behind her and ran.

That was it. She was gone.

Luke walked over to the couch he and Clementine move and sat down in it. Clem noticed him sit down and followed suit. They need a break. The little girl sat in Luke's lap before wrapping her arms around him. Luke did the same to her, pulling Clem closer. After a few minutes of holding each other, their arms hugged one another tighter after hearing a distant gun shot.

* * *

It's been a couple hours since Abigail left for good. Luke and Clementine were searching through the house for supplies lying around. Since the sun had set they were using flashlights. After the two met back up in the kitchen, the pulled out what they found.

Luke placed a few candles on the counter, along with a box of matches, and a can of food. "Not much, but we'll have some light." he said as he pulled out a match to light one of the candles. "I also found a couple bedrooms down the hall. What did you find?"

Clementine pulled out a bottle and placed it on the counter. "I found a lot of these in the basement. Shelves full of them. I don't know what it is." she said.

Luke picked the bottle up by the neck and looked at the label. "It's alcohol. Not much use to us." he said.

"Not much use for me, you mean." Clementine said. "You should have some."

Luke looked at her, processing what Clem said.

"We both had a rough day, and you're the only one who can drink." she explained.

"Since when did you know so much about alcohol?"

"Since Nick got drunk in a shed after we left the river. Pete died and he wouldn't stop drinking. I think you need it."

Luke paused. "You're really going to let me drink?"

"Yeah…" Clementine grabbed a candle and the match box. "I'm going to go to bed." she said before walking towards the hall.

"Clem?"

The little girl turned around to the farm boy.

"If I ever try to do something that you're uncomfortable with, don't be afraid to knock the shit out of me. You understand?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, just making sure."

"Goodnight, Luke."

"Night, kid."

* * *

"Cl_e_m." a voice whispered, exaggerating the vowel in her her name, while a hand shook her body.

The little girl slowly peeled her eyes open to see Luke's face illuminated by the candlelight that she forgot to blow out. "Luke?" she whispered back before sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Can-can you help me?" he asked with a stutter.

Clementine looked in his red eyes. Maybe he was drunk. "Yeah… With what?"

"Can you take off my weapon thing?"

"Your what?"

Luke pulled the strap of his machete holder off his chest to show the kid. "I can't get it off." He's most likely drunk.

"Yeah, sure." Clementine undid the strap and slid the holder off his arm, placing it on the floor by the bed.

"Thanks, kid." Luke said before climbing on the other side of the bed.

Clem stood up to blow out the candle. Right before she did, Luke spoke again. "Don't blow it out. It's… pretty."

"Luke, I have to."

"No." he exaggerated.

"Fine." she said before crawling back into bed. "Luke, how much did you have to drink?"

"I don't know, probably like four bottles. I waited an hour after the last bottle before coming in here. I think I'm half-drunk."

"I think you're more than halfway, Luke."

"I'm fine."

"What ever you say, just go to sleep." Clementine yawned before turning away from him to look at the candle. It was kind of pretty, actually.

Clem closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep. Right when she was about to, she felt an arm wrap around her, pinning her arms down and pull her small body towards the arm's owner. Her back was up against a warm chest, must be Luke. Who else could it be? Clementine felt him raise his head and rest it on top of hers, their cheeks touching. She could smell a bit of alcohol on him.

The eleven-year-old let him snuggle her. He was drunk, and she didn't want to make him upset. Otherwise she'd be up all night taking care of him. Clem felt Luke turn his head and kiss her cheek, causing her to smile slightly. But the smile slowly faded as he planted another kiss on her cheek, and another, and another. She was a little weirded out by this as he continued to kiss her cheek, but it wasn't like he was hurting her, it was harmless. Therefore, she let him, and to be honest, she kind of liked it.

After a while of kissing the little girl, Luke spoke. "Clem… Can you show me your eyes?"

"Luke, go to sleep." she muttered, a little upset that he stopped.

"Pl_ea_se…" he begged.

Clementine sighed before rolling over to him, opening her tired eyes. She watched Luke smile at her.

"You're beautiful. You know that, right?" he asked.

Clementine closed her eyes as she tilted her head down. She felt a warm hand lift up her chin, causing her to open her golden eyes to Luke's face.

"I mean that." he said.

"You're drunk." she responded.

"It's still true." The hand on Clem's chin moved to the side of her face before Luke started caressing her cheek. His face suddenly showed sorrow. "I thought I lost you today."

"You saved my life, Luke." Clementine said.

"What if I didn't, though. I- I thought you weren't going to wake up. I thought I was going to have to shoot you…" Clementine saw a tear glisten in the candlelight as it went down his cheek. Clem lifted her hand up to Luke's face, wiping the tear with her thumb. "Losing Abby was hard enough, but if I lost you, too… God…" Luke tried to hold it in, Clementine saw that. She's never seen Luke cry before.

With the hand already on his face, Clem pulled his head to her chest. This broke him. Luke wrapped his arms around the little girl's body, burying his face further in her chest to cry. He let everything out.

Clem just held his head with one hand, while the other rubbed his back. After Luke held her when she was scared or upset countless times, now it was her turn to hold him. She said that it'd be okay, she calmed him down best she could, and kissed the top of his head, rubbing it in afterward.

They had each other. That's all that mattered. They both hoped that one day the two could just settle down in one place and not live in fear of the rest of the world. Live with other people and try to get life back to what it was before.

Luke and Clementine knew that was never going to happen, but it was a nice thought. A thought they hope would come true.

* * *

**A/N: So I hope you liked this. I worked past a lot of writer's block and school to finish this. Please review, follow, favorite, etc.**

**Shout out to PeanutFangirl for helping me with Abigail. I love you!**

**Okay, bye :)**


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